In “Rare: The High-Stakes Race to Satisfy Our Need for the Scarcest Metals on Earth,” chemist and author Keith Veronese introduces us to an obscure element called promethium, which, he writes, “could be used to power atomic batteries that would continue to work for decades at a time.”
This would be a wonderful discovery but for one small problem: If we were to scour every single inch of the planet looking for this source of energy, we’d end up with about a pound of the stuff. Indeed, as marvelous as its powers are, promethium is so rare that we haven’t developed a dependency on it. The same cannot be said of samarium, gadolinium, lanthanum, or other rare metals that, almost without our noticing, have become indispensable to modern life.
The soaring demand for the metals described in “Rare” is a product of the digital age. There is, in fact, hardly a new technology in use that doesn’t rely on these elements. The capacitors in your smartphone are made of tantalum; the magnets inside your headphones contain neodymium; erbium is used to coat fiber optic cables; europium is responsible for the vivid colors on your flatscreen TV.
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“Our future technology and way of life hinges on these metals,” Veronese writes. This would be perfectly fine if these metals weren’t scattered across the world in minuscule quantities, often in a form that requires complex, costly, and time-consuming extraction procedures. Gaining a few grams of a rare metal from a couple of tons of rock can take months or even years.
While there’s no reliable way to gauge how much of this stuff we have left, we can at least be sure of one thing: Supplies of the elements that drive our iPads, missile systems, and Xboxes are going to run out. “It’s not going to be possible,” Veronese says, “to keep the game going forever.”
Veronese spoke to Ideas by phone from his home in Birmingham, Ala., about these rare metals, the political implications of our quest for them, and where we might turn next. Here, in Veronese’s own words, is what we learned.
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There are 17 rare earth metals, plus a handful of scarce metals in high demand. It’s likely you’ve never heard of most of them, but you come into contact with them every day. Computers, rechargeable batteries, hybrid automobiles, GPS systems, gaming devices—pretty much every technology you use is going to involve at least one of these elements.
Even familiar metals have been put to unfamiliar uses. Platinum is an interesting example. In a catalytic converter, it takes carbon monoxide and breaks it down into harmless substances like water. It’s used in a miracle drug for cancer. It’s been employed in certain types of breast implants. It’s a simple molecule that has a ton of uses.
We’ve known about many of these metals since the 1800s, but until recently we didn’t have the means—or the need—to extract them. One major motivating factor was the Cold War, when the United States and the Soviet Union went looking for the next big weapon. Military applications still play a central role. Beryllium, while not strictly a rare earth metal, is difficult to find and highly prized, mainly because it’s used in next-generation fighter jets. Keeping up a supply of that is a hot-button issue right now.
In the past, the metals used by humans were difficult to extract but relatively abundant. These newer ones are so scarce, our access so tenuous, it’s kind of frightening. Rare earth metals drive technological progress. It’s not that we wouldn’t have technology without them, but we’d have to take a step back. I don’t think any of us would be too excited about returning to the age of fax machines.
The world’s richest source of rare earth metals is China’s Bayan Obo Mining District. In the 1990s, the Chinese government did a very smart thing: They started putting out an enormous amount of these metals at very low prices, which made mining them so unprofitable that other operations just closed down. So while China has about a third of the world’s supply, its market share is 97 percent.
The pressing question is, could China withhold these metals for political purposes? It hasn’t yet, but the fact that it could freaks a lot of people out. The fear of being cut off is there—it’s a form of political capital. For sure, it’s made the United States sit up and listen. I don’t think the quest to secure these resources will result in wars, but it seems likely there will be political conflicts.
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There are other sources of rare earth metals. Parts of Central Africa have large deposits of tantalum, but the conflicts in that region have made it hard to get the metals out, and when they have, they’ve often been used to fund rebel groups. Afghanistan is sitting on potentially trillions of dollars in resources. You hope that country doesn’t fall into the same trap.
In terms of new sources, there has been talk of sucking or dredging rare metals from the ocean floor, which is worrying. In 2013, Greenland voted to overturn a mining ban on uranium, which is often found while extracting rare metals, so that’s a promising prospect.
There’s a possibility we may start mining on the moon in our lifetime—though, besides the practical difficulties, there are even bigger political ones. Who owns the moon? Politically, asteroids would be easier. There are so many of them out there, it’s less likely anyone will fight over them. And they’re likely to be a lot more fertile, in terms of the metals they contain.
Of course, we have to be careful. We’ve all seen “Armageddon”; we know what can happen when you start meddling with asteroids. But we don’t have to worry about that yet. We’re going to need a few technological advancements before we start mining in outer space.
Chris Wright is a writer and editor living in London.
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