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A Once-Shuttered California mine is trying to transform the rare earth industry
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A Once-Shuttered California mine is trying to transform the rare earth industry

A US-based rare earth supply chain could boost clean energy and electric vehicles — and military weapons.

Maddie Stone
Fast Company, 2023
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Rare earths are critical to making the magnets in many electronics, including cell phones and electric vehicles. China dominates the world’s supply, but the Western Hemisphere now has a contender: its only rare earth mine, closed for years, has reopened under new leadership. Maddie Stone reports in Fast Company that MP Minerals, the new owner of California’s Mountain Pass mine, plans to process rare earth metals with more environmentally sound methods than China uses. Anyone interested in economics, trade, politics, national security, or the US automotive, defense or high-tech supply chain has a stake in rare earths. 

Summary

Rare earths are indispensable in many electronics,  but their geographic distribution raises political issues.

Manufacturers use rare earth minerals in magnets that are crucial to modern electronics, including cell phones, alternative energy sources, sophisticated weapons and electric vehicles (EVs) – a major, growing focus of demand. Adamas Intelligence projects that the rare earths used in magnets will quintuple in market value by 2040, based on the expansion of wind energy and EVs.

The contemporary economy would be unimaginable without rare earths, but China mines 58% of the world’s supply. It also handles about 90% of the process of separating different types of rare earth metals, refining them and preparing them for use in manufacturing.

Rare earths’ unique chemical structure makes them necessary in the powerful magnets inside the batteries used to power electric vehicles and generate wind energy. Demand for batteries that use rare earths...

About the Author

Journalist Maddie Stone holds a doctorate in environmental science. She is the former science editor of Gizmodo and founding editor of its climate offshoot, Earther. This story is from Grist, and her work has also appeared in National Geographic, The Atlantic and other publications. She runs The Science of Fiction newsletter and hosts Slate’s Future Tense Fiction podcast.

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