Rare Earth Metals: The New Geopolitical Battleground

A new article by Maurizio Corrado and Anna Stefi, published on doppiozero, examines the geopolitical and economic significance of rare earth metals. These 17 elements—scandium, yttrium, lanthanum, cerium, praseodymium, neodymium, promethium, samarium, europium, gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium, holmium, erbium, thulium, ytterbium, and lutetium—are not actually earths but metals, rarely found in pure form and dispersed in low concentrations within other minerals, making extraction difficult and costly. The article argues that wars, both current and future, are being fought over these critical metals essential for the ecological transition. It references two in-depth publications on the subject, though their titles are not specified in the source.