ASSESSMENTS

The Geopolitics of Rare Earth Elements

Apr 8, 2019 | 09:00 GMT

The skyline of the Inner Mongolian city of Baotou is blackened by pollution from factories processing rare earth elements, which are essential for the production of mobile phones and computers.

Pollution from factories processing rare earth elements, which are essential for the production of mobile phones and computers, blackens the skyline of Baotou, in Inner Mongolia.

(Ed Jones/AFP/Getty Images)

Highlights

  • Demand for rare earth elements will grow in the next several years as the world undergoes an energy transition, but the supply chain is vulnerable.
  • China is the top supplier in the market, but its own growing domestic demand may lessen its dominance by driving increased production outside its own borders.
  • The U.S. defense industry makes up a small portion of the total demand for rare earth elements. To ensure supply alternatives from China, the U.S. government will likely need to proactively intervene in the market to shift production dependence away from China.

Tucked into the sixth row of the periodic table, often represented by a single square expanded like a footnote at the bottom of the table, are the 15 lanthanides. When combined with yttrium and scandium, these materials are better known as the rare earth elements. Though they are used in very small amounts, their significance to the U.S. defense sector and to emerging and potentially disruptive technologies, combined with China's control over the majority of the market, has given the rare earth elements outsized geopolitical relevance....

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