The race to produce rare earth materials

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The race to produce rare earth materials

By Mureji Fatunde | MIT Technology Review | January 5, 2024

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Abandoning fossil fuels and adopting lower-­carbon technologies are our best options for warding off the accelerating threat of climate change. Access to rare earth elements, key ingredients in many of these technologies, will partly determine which countries will meet their goals for lowering emissions or increasing the proportion of electricity generated from non-fossil-fuel sources. But some nations, including the US, are increasingly worried about whether the supply of those elements will remain stable. 

According to the International Energy Agency, demand for rare earth elements is expected to reach three to seven times current levels by 2040; demand for other critical minerals such as lithium may multiply 40-fold. Delivering on the 2016 Paris Agreement, under which signatory nations are obligated to reduce emissions to cap the global temperature increase, would require the global mineral supply to quadruple within the same time frame. At the current rate, supply is on track to merely double.

The “rare” in “rare earth elements” refers not to the quantity available but rather to their wide dispersion—it’s hard to find an economically meaningful quantity in a single location. Obtaining rare earth elements begins with obtaining source materials, which can happen, broadly, in three ways: primary extraction, or mining directly from the earth; recovery from secondary sources, such as end-of-life electronics; and extraction from unconventional sources, including industrial wastes like coal ash and waste products from mines. But China so dominates the market—it controlled 60% of global production in 2021—that other countries are at a disadvantage. After China announced export restrictions in 2023 on gallium, germanium, and graphite, nations scrambled to find alternative sources in anticipation of future restrictions. 

3 key takeaways from the article

1. Abandoning fossil fuels and adopting lower-­carbon technologies are our best options for warding off the accelerating threat of climate change. Access to rare earth elements, key ingredients in many of these technologies, will partly determine which countries will meet their goals for lowering emissions or increasing the proportion of electricity generated from non-fossil-fuel sources. 
2. The “rare” in “rare earth elements” refers not to the quantity available but rather to their wide dispersion—it’s hard to find an economically meaningful quantity in a single location.
3. According to the International Energy Agency, demand for rare earth elements is expected to reach three to seven times current levels by 2040.  But some nations, including the US, are increasingly worried about whether the supply of those elements will remain stable.

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Topics:  Rare Earth, Supply Chain, Environment