Why are rare earth elements important for our present and future?

Rare earth elements (REEs) are crucial for production of clean energy, electric vehicles, consumer electronics, national defense and more. China controls more than 80\% of global production and supply, putting supply chains and national security at risk.

How do these rare earth elements affect your everyday life?

Uses of Rare Earth Elements Rare earth metals and alloys that contain them are used in many devices that people use every day such as computer memory, DVDs, rechargeable batteries, cell phones, catalytic converters, magnets, fluorescent lighting and much more.

What is unique about rare-earth metals?

Rare-earth elements are a group of 17 metals that — as their name suggests — form under the Earth’s surface and are difficult to find and extract. But they are crucial to the tech and defense industries; rare-earth metals have unique magnetic, heat-resistant, and phosphorescent properties that no other elements have.

Why rare earth elements are useful to scientific and technical innovation?

REE are the elements that have become extremely important to our world of technology owing to their unique magnetic, phosphorescent, and catalytic properties. These elements are critical to technologies ranging from cell phones and televisions to LED light bulbs and wind turbines.

What are the rare earth elements used for in a smartphone?

These metals give rise to striking colors such as green, blue and red due to their luminescent property. Additionally, rare-earth are responsible for making the smart-phones vibrate, are used in the speaker system, as well as in many of the electronic circuits that allow the phone to work.

What is the future of rare earth metals?

The annual demand for rare-earth metals doubled to 125,000 tonnes in 15 years, and the demand is projected to reach 315,000 tonnes in 2030, driven by increasing uptake in green technologies and advancing electronics. This is creating enormous pressure on global production.