Why Are Rare Earth Metals So Important?

Now you mentioned this particular interest has been placed on rare earths in recent months.

Why are these materials or metals receiving so much attention? >> Uh they're very important across the economy.

Uh they're used in and I know we've discussed this in the past, you know, wind turbines, EVs, uh but they're also used in fighter jets and missile guidance systems, uh all across a technology spectrum.

If you think about your cell phone, uh the thing that makes it vibrate is rare earths and the magnets that are in there.

Um this is of particular concern u where western countries are concerned because if you go back to the early 1990s uh the US was actually the the leading producer of rare earths and um throughout the 1990s and early 2000s what we saw was a very concerted effort by China to take ownership not only of rare earths but other aspects of uh critical materials and really internalize that supply chain.

Uh so now we're in a situation where a lot of that knowledge uh industry knowledge and the processing knowledge and technology has been lost.

Uh and we're starting to build that back and and that's really been a focus of you know I'd say the last 12 or or 18 months that we've seen now.

Uh particularly as the geopolitical tensions have risen.

Uh, China's really used rare earth as um an important uh step in their negotiation tactics.