The US Looks for Its Own Rare Earths

From the rock to the nuclear warhead, wars have always been fought with available technologies, and these technologies all required components that were, to varying degrees, embedded in the earth. As military technology evolved, access to these minerals was frequently the cause of war, and even more frequently was how the war would be decided.

Such is the case with rare earth elements, specifically heavy rare earths, a class of material that has become critical to national defense and therefore to the defense industry. The heavy rare earths include yttrium and the heavier lanthanides: terbium, dysprosium, holmium, erbium, thulium, ytterbium and lutetium. Some of these are used in the production of medical equipment…