As defined by Wikipedia, a rare earth metal (REM), or rare earth element (REE), is one of a set of seventeen chemical elements in the periodic table, specifically the fifteen lanthanides, as well as scandium and yttrium (because they tend to occur in the same ore deposits and exhibit chemical properties). While many of these elements are relatively plentiful in the Earth’s crust, they are rare in that, due to their geochemical properties, they are typically dispersed and not concentrated in ore deposits that are (easily) economically exploitable.
They are a damnation because:
- almost every piece of modern technology depends on at least one of these elements
- many of these elements are in short supply and supply, based on current mining capacity, is expected to be insufficient as early as 2020 for some of these elements
- many of them cost more than precious metals
- on average, 95% (or more) of rare earth metals are now being mined and provided by a single country: China
- … and China is considering export restrictions that could significantly cripple global production of modern technology if implemented
To illustrate just how important these metals are, consider the common uses:
| Metal | Selected Uses |
| Scandium | aerospace, metal-halide and mercury vapor lamps, and radioactive tracing agents |
| Yttrium | lasers, superconductors, microwave filters, and spark plugs |
| Lanthanum | flint, hydrogen storage, battery electrodes, camera lenses |
| Cerium | oxidizing agent, polishing powder, catalytic uses |
| Praseodymium | magnets, lasers, carbon arc lighting, didymium glass |
| Neodymium | magnets, lasers, didymium glass, ceramic capacitors |
| Promethium | nuclear batteries and luminous paint |
| Samarium | magnets, lasers, neutron capture, masers |
| Europium | phosphors, lasers, mercury-vapor and fluorescent lamps |
| Gadolinium | magnets, lasers, X-ray tubes, computer memory, neutron capture, MRI contrast agent, magnetostrictive alloys |
| Terbium | phosphors, lasers, fluorescent lamps, magnetostrictive alloys |
| Dysprosium | magnets, lasers, magnetostrictive alloys |
| Holmium | lasers, optical spectrophotometers, magnets |
| Erbium | lasers, vanadium steel, fiber-optics |
| Thulium | X-ray machines, metal-halide lamps, lasers |
| Ytterbium | lasers, decoy flares, stainless steel, nuclear medicine |
| Lutetium | positron emission tomography, lutetium tatalate hosts |
And every computing device requires magnetics, memory, and optimal transmission (and this includes your laptops, phones, cameras, cars, etc.). These days almost everything has a microchip with a persistent (flash) memory. So when you consider the five-pronged reality described above, rare earth metals are quickly becoming a thorny Procurement Damnation.