Rare earth elements: What are they? Nd, La, Ce, Pr, Gd… ring a bell? These are elements from the periodic table. They are not rarely occurring at all, but economically exploitable deposits containing these elements are unusual. They are however very difficult to extract and dangerous to process. 95% of the world production comes from mainland China. All have important applications, of which the most mainstream would be Neodymium and Samarium, commonly found in high quality speaker magnets.
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Rare earth elements: What are they?

Nd, La, Ce, Pr, Gd… ring a bell? These are elements from the periodic table. They are not rarely occurring at all, but economically exploitable deposits containing these elements are unusual.

They are however very difficult to extract and dangerous to process. 95% of the world production comes from mainland China.

All have important applications, of which the most mainstream would be Neodymium and Samarium, commonly found in high quality speaker magnets.

Source: BBC