What Are Rare Earth Elements?

Rare earth elements are a group of 17 metals: the 15 lanthanides plus scandium and yttrium. They are common in the Earth's crust but rarely concentrated, and they are used in magnets, catalysts and electronics.

A typical phone contains several rare earths, which produce the colours on its screen and drive the magnets in its speakers. The same metals sit inside electric car motors, wind turbine generators and oil refineries, though most people couldn't name one of them.

Which elements count as rare earths?

The rare earth elements are the 15 lanthanides, which run from lanthanum (atomic number 57) to lutetium (71) on the periodic table, plus scandium (21) and yttrium (39). Natural Resources Canada uses this 17-element definition. Scandium and yttrium join the group because they act much like the lanthanides, and yttrium in particular tends to turn up in the same deposits.

On a periodic table, the lanthanides are the first row of the block that usually floats below the main chart. The table below lists all 17 with their symbols and atomic numbers.

Two of these rarely come up in mining news. Promethium is unstable and almost never found in nature, so it plays no part in real deposits. Scandium is chemically similar, but the USGS notes it doesn't occur in minable amounts in the same kinds of deposits as the others. The USGS covers scandium in a separate report and leaves most of it out of its rare earth figures.

Why are they called rare if they're not rare?

The name comes from the history of chemistry and says little about how scarce these metals are. Chemists found most of them in the 1700s and 1800s, when "earths" meant substances that heat couldn't change, and these ones were less common than familiar earths like lime. The label has stayed in use ever since.

Rare earths are fairly common in the Earth's crust. The USGS fact sheet on rare earth elements notes that cerium is more common in the crust than copper or lead. Every rare earth except promethium is, on average, more plentiful than gold, silver or platinum.

The crust figures in that fact sheet give a sense of scale. Neodymium averages about 41.5 parts per million and gold about 0.004 parts per million, so on average the crust holds roughly ten thousand times more neodymium than gold.

Rare earths are seldom found in concentrated form. Unlike gold or copper, which often occur on their own, they sit together inside minerals as a family of near-twins. The USGS 2026 rare earths summary says the elements are abundant but that minable concentrations are less common than for most other minerals.

Why are rare earths so hard to produce?

Producing rare earths is hard because, once the ore is mined, the elements still have to be separated from each other. A mine first makes a concentrate, and a separation plant then splits that mix into single oxides, such as neodymium oxide or lanthanum oxide.

Because the elements are so alike, separation takes many steps of chemical work, including leaching and solvent extraction. The USGS calls the cost and complexity of processing one important part of building a rare earth mine. It also helps explain why a country can host large deposits and still rely on others for finished product. A rare earth project's plan for separating its concentrate deserves as much attention as the size of its deposit. Our guide, How to Read a Rare Earth Resource Estimate, covers the deposit side.

What are rare earth elements used for?

Rare earths are used mainly for their magnetic, optical and chemical properties. According to the USGS, magnets are the leading use worldwide. Natural Resources Canada puts magnets at 47.6% of global demand in 2024, ahead of catalysts at 15.7% and polishing powders at 10.5%.

• Magnets. Neodymium-iron-boron magnets are the strongest magnets known. They drive electric vehicle motors, wind turbine generators, speakers and hard drives. Our guide, Rare Earth Magnets Explained, goes deeper.
• Catalysts. Lanthanum-based catalysts help refine petroleum. Cerium-based catalysts clean car exhaust in catalytic converters.
• Glass and polishing. The glass industry uses rare earths for polishing and to add colour. Lanthanum can make up as much as half of a digital camera lens.
• Metals and batteries. A rare earth mix called mischmetal removes impurities in steelmaking. Nickel-metal hydride batteries, used in hybrid cars, are built with lanthanum-based alloys.
• Lighting and displays. Yttrium, europium and terbium give the red, green and blue in many screens and bulbs.

In the United States, the USGS estimates catalysts, not magnets, are the leading use. The agency also notes that a significant amount of imported rare earths arrives already built into finished goods.

What's the difference between light and heavy rare earths?

Rare earths are split into light and heavy groups by atomic number. The USGS fact sheet puts lanthanum through gadolinium (57 to 64) in the light group and terbium through lutetium (65 to 71) in the heavy group. Yttrium counts as heavy even though it's a much lighter atom, because it behaves like the heavy ones.

The line isn't fixed. Some authorities put europium and gadolinium with the heavies, and China's April 2025 export controls covered samarium and gadolinium, which the USGS usually calls light. When a company says "heavy rare earths", it's worth checking which elements it means.

Heavy rare earths are less abundant than light ones but are elevated in some ores, including ion-adsorption clays, says the USGS heavy rare earths summary. Scarcity shows up in the price. The table compares 2025 average oxide prices.

Source: USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026, Rare Earths and Rare Earths (Heavy). Free on board.

Dysprosium and terbium are the heavies that matter most. Added to neodymium magnets, they help the magnets keep working when hot, which is why electric car motors need them. Clays in southern China are the world's main source of heavy rare earths, and China and Burma supply almost all of them, according to Natural Resources Canada. Outside China, several companies made small amounts of heavy rare earth compounds and metals in 2025, but none at sustained commercial scale, the USGS says. Our guide Rare Earth Deposit Types explains which deposits carry them.

Where are rare earth elements mined?

Rare earths are mined in only a handful of countries, and China produces most of them. The USGS estimates world mine output at about 390,000 tonnes of rare earth oxide in 2025. China mined about 270,000 tonnes of that, roughly 69%.

Source: USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026. REO means rare earth oxide, the standard way the industry counts output.

Brazil holds the second-largest reserves but mines very little so far. The USGS also lists reserves for Canada, Greenland, South Africa and Tanzania, none of which mined rare earths in 2025. Refining is even more concentrated than mining. Natural Resources Canada says China handles about 90% of global rare earth refining, so Chinese policy affects supply for every other country. Our guide to China Rare Earth Export Controls covers the latest changes.

In the United States, rare earths come mainly from bastnaesite mined at Mountain Pass, California, with some monazite from mineral sands in the southeast. US output reached an estimated 51,000 tonnes in 2025, worth about US$240 million, per the USGS.

How do rare earths get from a mine to a magnet?

The rare earth supply chain is the series of steps that turns mined rock into something a factory can use. A mine digs up ore and upgrades it into a mixed concentrate. A separation plant splits that mix into single oxides. Refiners turn the oxides into metal, and magnet makers melt the metal into alloy and press it into finished magnets.

Each step is its own industry, and most companies only do one or two of them. China is ahead at every stage, and its lead grows toward the end of the chain. The International Energy Agency says China mined around 60% of magnet rare earths in 2024, did about 91% of separation and refining, and made 94% of sintered permanent magnets. So a new separation plant outside China can matter more to buyers than a new mine. Rare Earth Magnets Explained walks through each step.

Why do China's export rules matter so much?

An export control is a rule that a product needs a government licence before it can leave the country. In April 2025 China put licence rules on seven rare earths, dysprosium and terbium among them. It added five more in October, then paused that second round for a year in November, according to the USGS.

China does most of the world's refining, so these rules affect buyers in every country. They are also a big reason rare earth shares rise and fall on news from Beijing. Our guide to China Rare Earth Export Controls lists which rules are still in force.

Does Canada produce rare earths?

Canada has no rare earth mine in production. The USGS reported no Canadian mine output in 2025, but it puts Canada's reserves at about 830,000 tonnes of rare earth oxide.

Natural Resources Canada uses a wider measure. It estimates Canada held over 15.2 million tonnes of rare earth oxide in 2024, counting measured and indicated resources as well as reserves, compiled from company reports. NRCan cautions that some of those projects may be on hold, or their owners may have changed focus. It also notes that many of Canada's most advanced projects are rich in the valuable heavy rare earths.

The furthest along are at the feasibility stage, by NRCan's count: the Nechalacho Basal Zone in the Northwest Territories, Wicheeda in British Columbia, and Strange Lake and Crater Lake in Quebec. Others, such as Ashram and Kwyjibo in Quebec, are at the earlier preliminary economic assessment stage.

Processing is the real gap. North America supplied just 0.8% of the world's refined rare earths in 2024, against 90.2% for China, in figures NRCan publishes. Canada's first plant to separate rare earths and make metal is the Saskatchewan Research Council's facility in Saskatoon, covered in How Rare Earths Are Processed. Companies developing Canadian projects are on our rare earth stocks list.

Where can I go deeper on rare earths?

Each REE Stocks guide covers one part of the rare earth industry in more detail. New guides are added to this list as they're published.

• Rare Earth Magnets ExplainedHow NdFeB magnets are made, where they go, and why they drive rare earth demand.
• Rare Earth Deposit TypesCarbonatites, ionic clays and mineral sands: why the rock decides the cost.
• What Is NdPr Oxide?The neodymium-praseodymium product that sets most rare earth project economics.
• China Rare Earth Export ControlsWhat China restricted in 2025, what it suspended, and what is still in force.
• How Rare Earths Are ProcessedFrom ore to concentrate to separated oxide to metal: the steps and who does them.
• Rare Earth RecyclingWhy so few rare earths are recycled today, how magnets are recovered, and how much recycling could supply.
• Why Rare Earth Deposits Don't Need High GradesWhy a 0.3% clay can compete with a 6% hard-rock mine: the mix of elements, the extraction method and the location.
• How to Read a Rare Earth Resource EstimateTREO, magnet rare earth ratios and cut-off grades, in plain language.

Where can I learn about rare earth companies?

Rare earth companies range from large producers to small explorers with a single project. Our list of Rare Earth Stocks describes listed companies by stage, project and location. The list is for reference and is not a recommendation.

Sources

• USGS, Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026: Rare Earths
• USGS Fact Sheet 2014-3078: The Rare-Earth Elements, Vital to Modern Technologies and Lifestyles
• Natural Resources Canada, Rare earth elements facts
• USGS, Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026: Rare Earths (Heavy)
• International Energy Agency, With new export controls on critical minerals, supply concentration risks become reality (2025)