Access to rare earth elements is becoming a geopolitical key issue. While China dominates the global market, Europe is intensifying its search for its own deposits. New discoveries in Scandinavia and exploration projects in Germany and Austria are strengthening the EU’s raw materials strategy.
What spices are to the kitchen, rare earth elements are to industry. Without them, the formulas for the energy transition would be far less successful. These metals are found in key components of wind turbines and electric vehicles, for example. However, the extraction of rare earths has often been a dirty business at the expense of the environment. China still dominates the global market and holds significant leverage when it comes to exports and pricing. What needs to happen for this to change?
What Are Rare Earth Elements?
Rare earth elements (REE) consist of 17 chemical elements: the 15 lanthanides (from lanthanum [La] to lutetium [Lu]) plus scandium (Sc) and yttrium (Y). Although the name “rare” suggests these elements are unusually scarce, that’s misleading — many are about as abundant in the Earth’s crust as copper or zinc. However, they usually occur only in very low concentrations (e.g., cerium ≈ 60 ppm, thulium or lutetium ≈ 0.5 ppm). Historically, isolating them was difficult and expensive, which led to names like “earth” and “rare,” based on early mineral discoveries (“earths”). Scandium and yttrium are included as REEs because they often appear in the same deposits and share similar chemical properties.
Technically, rare earths are often divided into light rare earth elements (LREE) and heavy rare earth elements (HREE). LREE usually cover elements with atomic numbers 57–61 (lanthanum to promethium), while HREE include those with atomic numbers 62–71 (dysprosium to lutetium, plus yttrium). They are distinguished by special physical properties — magnetic (e.g., neodymium [Nd], praseodymium [Pr], dysprosium [Dy]), optical (e.g., europium [Eu], erbium [Er], ytterbium [Yb]), or catalytic (e.g., lanthanum [La], cerium [Ce]). This versatility makes them indispensable materials in high technologies such as permanent magnets, catalysts, glass, ceramics, electronics, and aerospace.
In short: Rare earth elements are 17 mostly silvery metals in the middle of the periodic table, technically important for their magnetic, optical, and catalytic properties — and despite their relatively common occurrence, historically challenging to extract.
A multilingual professional experienced in Europe, Canada, and China, Herbert has developed invaluable networks in the automotive and energy industries. He has led high-profile projects involving ENBW, Mercedes-Benz Group, Siemens Group, and the Fraunhofer Institute.