Rare Earth Elements & US Connection

According to The Rare Earth Technology Alliance, there are 17 elements that are deemed rare. Found in Earth’s crust, these elements are integral for the making of modern technologies, including consumer electronics, computers and networks, communications, clean energy, advanced transportation, health care, environmental mitigation, national defense, to name a few. Available in plenty in different regions, processing rare earth elements into materials is often extremely polluting. China has created well-developed production set-ups for the same.

United States once happened to be a major producer of rare earth elements. However, over the last decade, China’s aggressive pricing schemes helped it develop almost a monopoly in rare earth materials with United States and other miners in the world exiting the segment. In fact, per a Wall Street Journal article, the only mine in the United States producing rare earth minerals, Mountain Pass, is itself dependent on China for processing. Resultantly, the United States had imported around $160 million worth of rare earth elements in 2018, with majority imports from China. The figure excludes the price of finished goods and intermediate products made using rare earths.

However, United States understands its over-dependence on foreign resources for essential minerals. Thus, in March 2019, Congress introduced a bipartisan bill to ramp up mining of U.S. rare earth elements and other critical minerals.