You’re probably holding a piece of the periodic table’s weirdest neighborhood right now. It’s in your pocket. It’s in your laptop’s speakers. It’s definitely in that electric vehicle hummed past you this morning. But honestly, where is rare earth found? Most people think "rare" means these things are like diamonds—tucked away in two or three secret caves on the planet.
That’s a total myth.
Rare earth elements (REEs) are actually everywhere. They’re about as common in the Earth’s crust as copper or lead. The catch is they are almost never found in concentrated "nuggets." They are antisocial. They like to hide inside other minerals, mixed in with dirt and rock in tiny, frustratingly small amounts. Finding them is easy; getting them out without destroying the local ecosystem is the part that keeps CEOs and world leaders up at night.
The Global Map: It’s Not Just China Anymore
For the last few decades, if you asked where rare earth is found, the answer was basically "China." They cornered the market. Specifically, the Bayan Obo mine in Inner Mongolia is the heavyweight champion of the world. It’s a massive operation that produces a huge chunk of the global supply, particularly the "light" rare earths like neodymium and praseodymium. These are the ones that make magnets strong enough to power a Tesla motor.
But things are shifting. Fast.
In the United States, we have the Mountain Pass mine in California. It has a wild history—opening, closing, going bankrupt, and then roaring back to life as a matter of national security. It’s currently the biggest player in the Western Hemisphere. Then you’ve got Australia. Lynas Rare Earths operates the Mt Weld mine, which is world-class in terms of the grade of ore they’re pulling out of the ground.
- Mountain Pass, USA: High-grade bastnaesite deposits.
- Mt Weld, Australia: Known for its "central lanthanide deposit," which is incredibly rich.
- Bayan Obo, China: The undisputed king of volume.
- Kachin State, Myanmar: A controversial but massive source of heavy rare earths.
Geography matters, but the type of dirt matters more.
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The Difference Between "Light" and "Heavy" Dirt
Geologists split these 17 elements into two groups. It sounds nerdy, but it’s the difference between a cheap earbud and a fighter jet. Light Rare Earth Elements (LREEs) are more common. Heavy Rare Earth Elements (HREEs) are the rare-rare ones. Think dysprosium and terbium. These are the additives that stop magnets from demagnetizing when they get hot.
Where do you find the heavy stuff? Mostly in ion-adsorption clays.
These are specific types of soil found in southern China and Myanmar. The elements are literally stuck to the surface of clay particles. It makes them easier to wash off with chemicals, but the environmental cost has been brutal. In places like northern Myanmar, the rush to dig these up has led to massive deforestation and water pollution that locals are still dealing with. It’s a messy business.
Why Can’t We Just Dig a Hole Anywhere?
Technically, you could go into your backyard, dig a hole, and you’d probably find a few atoms of cerium. But you’d spend a billion dollars trying to get a gram of it.
The "where" is defined by economics and chemistry. To have a viable mine, you need a geological fluke—a place where volcanic activity or hydrothermal vents concentrated these elements millions of years ago. You also need a way to separate them. Rare earths are chemically identical siblings. They look alike. They act alike. To separate neodymium from praseodymium, you have to run them through hundreds of "stages" of acid baths and solvents.
It’s why the Norra Kärr project in Sweden or the Nechalacho project in Canada’s Northwest Territories are so interesting. They aren't just holes in the ground; they are complex chemical puzzles. Canada, in particular, is sitting on a goldmine (well, a rare earth mine) of potential, but the infrastructure is tough. It’s cold, it’s remote, and building a processing plant costs more than a professional sports stadium.
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The New Frontier: Recycling and the Deep Sea
We’re starting to look in places that aren't "ground" at all.
There is a massive amount of rare earth sitting in our landfills. Every old iPhone is a tiny mine. Companies like Apple are trying to use robots (they have one named Daisy) to rip apart phones and recover the magnets. It’s "urban mining."
Then there’s the bottom of the ocean.
The Clarion-Clipperton Zone in the Pacific Ocean is covered in "polymetallic nodules." These look like black potatoes and are packed with cobalt, nickel, and yes, rare earths. It sounds like science fiction, but companies are already testing underwater vacuum cleaners to suck these up. Is it a good idea? Scientists are worried it will choke the deep-sea ecosystem with silt. But as the demand for green energy grows, the pressure to look "under the sea" is becoming intense.
The Role of Monazite Sands
You’ve probably walked on rare earths at the beach.
In India and Brazil, there are stretches of "black sands" rich in monazite. This mineral is a major host for rare earths. The problem? Monazite usually contains thorium, which is radioactive. This makes it a headache to transport and process. India has huge reserves of these beach sands, but the regulatory red tape around handling radioactive materials means they haven't become the global powerhouse they could be.
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What This Means for the Future
The world is desperate to diversify. Nobody wants to rely on just one country for the ingredients of the future. We’re seeing exploration in Greenland, where the melting ice is revealing massive deposits like the Kvanefjeld site. We’re seeing renewed interest in Vietnam, which is believed to have the second-largest reserves in the world, though they haven't quite figured out the industrial scale yet.
Basically, the answer to where is rare earth found is evolving from "mostly China" to "anywhere with the right chemistry and enough capital."
It's a high-stakes game of musical chairs. Every country wants a seat at the table because, without these elements, the "green revolution" just doesn't happen. Wind turbines need them. EVs need them. Even the screen you're reading this on uses europium and terbium to give you those crisp colors.
Moving Forward: Actionable Insights
If you are looking to understand or invest in this space, stop looking for "rare earth mines" and start looking at the supply chain.
- Watch the "Separation" Capacity: Digging dirt is easy. The real power belongs to whoever owns the separation plants. Currently, China still owns about 85% of that capacity. Keep an eye on projects in the US, Australia, and Estonia that are building their own "cracking and leaching" facilities.
- Focus on Heavy vs. Light: If you see a company claiming they found a massive deposit, check if it's LREE (Light) or HREE (Heavy). Heavies are worth significantly more and are much harder to find outside of specific clay deposits.
- Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) is the Real Bottleneck: The reason more mines don't exist in Europe or North America isn't a lack of rocks; it's the permitting process. A mine that can't prove it's "clean" will struggle to get funding in the current market.
- Monitor the Circular Economy: As the first generation of large-scale EVs begins to retire in the late 2020s, the technology for recycling neodymium magnets will become a billion-dollar industry. Companies focusing on "magnet-to-magnet" recycling are the ones to watch.
The dirt is everywhere. The expertise is rare.