The minerals wind up in everything from iPhones to wind turbines and missiles. The appetite in the United States for products that include rare earths is enormous. In large part, that is because so much manufacturing has shifted out of the United States. For example, American oil refineries depend on lanthanum, which is the cheapest and most easily produced of the 17 rare-earth elements, as a catalyst to refine crude oil. But lanthanum is mined in bulk in Australia and in the United States as well as in China.

Source: New York Times May 23, 2019 14:37 UTC