[Goose]

Hate to do this, but rare earth metals are not especially rare.

https://www.thermofisher.com/blog/mining...-elements/

The problem is that they are typically not concentrated nor easy to extract, but the “rare” earths are pretty widely distributed in the Earth’s crust.

BC

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abundance_...%27s_crust puts it all out there in numbers. The "rare earths" are indeed "rare" compared to say silicon or even iron. They are not rare compared to say selenium. This makes intuitive sense because elements up through iron are made by "normal" stars. However, given the mass of the earth's crust there is indeed plenty of these less common elements present in it. As your source correctly points out, finding them in commercially useful purity and quantity is the issue. Since purifying these elements is difficult, starting with a relatively high concentration is essential to feasible extraction.

[Goose]

Hate to do this, but rare earth metals are not especially rare.

https://www.thermofisher.com/blog/mining...-elements/

The problem is that they are typically not concentrated nor easy to extract, but the “rare” earths are pretty widely distributed in the Earth’s crust.

BC

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abundance_...%27s_crust puts it all out there in numbers. The "rare earths" are indeed "rare" compared to say silicon or even iron. They are not rare compared to say selenium. This makes intuitive sense because elements up through iron are made by "normal" stars. However, given the mass of the earth's crust there is indeed plenty of these less common elements present in it. As your source correctly points out, finding them in commercially useful purity and quantity is the issue. Since purifying these elements is difficult, starting with a relatively high concentration is essential to feasible extraction.