Critical minerals are raw materials that an economy depends on and whose supply is at risk of disruption. Governments publish official lists of them: the U.S. list had 60 entries in 2025 and the EU names 34 critical raw materials. Rare earth elements are a group of 17 metals, the 15 lanthanides plus scandium and yttrium, that appear on both lists. The main concern is less that they are geologically scarce and more that mining, refining and magnet making are concentrated in one country.

• The U.S. final 2025 List of Critical Minerals has 60 entries, up from 50 in 2022. New additions include copper, silver, silicon, potash, uranium and metallurgical coal.
• The EU Critical Raw Materials Act lists 34 critical raw materials, 17 of them strategic, and sets non-binding 2030 benchmarks for domestic extraction, processing and recycling of strategic raw materials.
• China produced about 270,000 of the world's roughly 390,000 tonnes of rare earth oxide in 2025, according to USGS. For magnet rare earths, the IEA puts its share of separation and refining at about 91% in 2024.
• Battery minerals are concentrated as well. The Democratic Republic of the Congo mined an estimated 73% of the world's cobalt in 2025, and China produced an estimated 82% of natural graphite.
• The main responses are diversified supply, recycling (historically below 1% for rare earths) and materials that use less dysprosium, terbium and cobalt.

What makes a mineral "critical"?

Criticality is a policy judgment based on data, not a property of the element. The EU scores materials on two axes, economic importance and supply risk (European Commission). The USGS list draws on data on supply, demand and concentration of production. Its 2025 notice describes the list as "dynamic" and to be updated "not less than biannually" (Federal Register, 90 FR 50494).

What are the 17 rare earth elements?

The rare earths are the 15 lanthanides, from lanthanum (atomic number 57) to lutetium (71), plus yttrium and scandium (overview). Yttrium is grouped with them because it is chemically similar and occurs in the same deposits. Scandium is chemically similar but rarely occurs in the same ore bodies. Promethium is radioactive and essentially absent from natural deposits (USGS Fact Sheet 2014-3078). Despite the name, most rare earths are not especially rare in the crust. What is uncommon is a deposit concentrated enough to mine economically.

Light vs heavy rare earths

The USGS fact sheet traditionally divides them into light rare earths, lanthanum through gadolinium, and heavy rare earths, terbium through lutetium plus yttrium. It notes that some authorities count europium and gadolinium as heavy. The USGS 2026 heavy rare earths chapter covers terbium, dysprosium, holmium, erbium, thulium, ytterbium and lutetium (USGS MCS 2026). The split matters commercially. Heavy rare earths such as dysprosium and terbium are produced in much smaller volumes and are harder to source outside China.

What are rare earth elements used for?

• Permanent magnets. Neodymium-iron-boron (NdFeB) magnets are the strongest commercial magnets and are used in EV traction motors, wind turbines and electronics (USGS). Magnets are the leading global end use of rare earths (USGS MCS 2026). The underlying Nd2Fe14B phase was reported in 1984 with a Curie temperature of 585 K and a record energy product of 290 kJ/m³ in sintered magnets (Sagawa et al., 1984). Samarium-cobalt is the other main rare earth magnet family. See rare earth permanent magnets.
• Catalysts. Lanthanum-based catalysts are used in petroleum refining and cerium-based catalysts in automotive catalytic converters (see CeO2). Catalysts are the leading domestic U.S. end use (USGS MCS 2026).
• Phosphors and optics. Yttrium, europium and terbium phosphors provide the red, green and blue emission in many lamps and displays. Rare earth oxides are also used in glass polishing and specialty glass.
• Other uses. Batteries (lanthanum-based nickel-metal hydride alloys), ceramics and metallurgy. Heavy rare earths are also used in fiber optics, lasers and medical equipment (USGS).

Why does dysprosium matter so much for magnets?

The magnetic coercivity of Nd2Fe14B (its resistance to demagnetization) falls quickly as temperature rises. Motors running at roughly 150 to 200 °C therefore need dysprosium or terbium added, and a 2020 review notes that sintered magnets for wind turbines and electric vehicle motors have usually contained about 10 wt% Dy/Tb. These heavy rare earths raise the anisotropy field but reduce remanence and add cost (Liu et al., 2021). The grain boundary diffusion process concentrates Dy or Tb near grain surfaces and has been rapidly industrialized as a way to get high coercivity with much less heavy rare earth. Work continues on magnets free of heavy rare earths altogether. Explore oxide feedstocks such as Nd2O3 and Dy2O3.

Where are rare earths mined and refined?

In USGS estimates for 2025, China produced 270,000 tonnes of rare earth oxide equivalent out of a world total of about 390,000 tonnes, roughly 69%. The United States produced 51,000 tonnes, Australia 29,000 and Burma 22,000 (USGS MCS 2026). Refining is more concentrated still. For the four magnet rare earths (Nd, Pr, Dy, Tb), the IEA estimates China held about 60% of mining, about 91% of separation and refining, and 94% of sintered permanent magnet production in 2024 (IEA, October 2025).

That concentration has had practical consequences. In April 2025 China placed export controls on seven rare earths (samarium, gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium, lutetium, scandium and yttrium) and their alloys, compounds, metals and oxides. In October it extended controls to holmium, erbium, thulium, europium and ytterbium. In November it suspended the October measures for one year, while the April controls remained in effect (USGS). The IEA reported that some carmakers outside China cut production when magnet supplies tightened in 2025.

How concentrated is the lithium and battery mineral supply chain?

Batteries are now the dominant use of lithium, at an estimated 88% of global end use (USGS MCS 2026, lithium). Across the main energy minerals, the IEA found that the top three refining countries' average market share rose from about 82% in 2020 to 86% in 2024 (IEA Global Critical Minerals Outlook 2025).

Downstream concentration is even higher. The IEA notes that China holds 80% or more of many midstream battery segments and 95% or more of precursor and LFP cathode material production (IEA).

Can substitution and recycling reduce the risk?

Substitution has already changed battery demand. Cobalt-free lithium iron phosphate, LiFePO4, now accounts for about half of the global electric car battery market (IEA). High-nickel layered cathodes related to LiNiO2 also cut cobalt per kWh. Each option has trade-offs, covered in our LFP vs NMC comparison. For rare earths, USGS notes that substitutes exist for many uses "but generally are less effective."

Recycling starts from a low base. A 2011 UNEP International Resource Panel assessment estimated end-of-life recycling rates below 1% for every rare earth element and for lithium. USGS still reports only "limited quantities" of rare earths recovered from batteries, magnets and lamps in 2025. Battery recycling capacity has grown since 2020, with two-thirds of that growth in China (IEA). See battery recycling and cathode materials. The EU's 25% recycling benchmark for strategic raw materials by 2030 is aimed at this gap.

How can materials discovery help?

Computation can narrow the search for compounds that avoid critical elements. Databases built on density functional theory (DFT) let researchers screen thousands of candidate compositions for thermodynamic stability before any synthesis. Google DeepMind's GNoME project reported 2.2 million computed structures below the previously known convex hull (Merchant et al., Nature, 2023). The limits matter, though. A computed stable crystal is not a working magnet or cathode, because coercivity depends on microstructure and battery performance on kinetics and processing, neither of which bulk DFT captures. Computation is best used to shortlist candidates, and experiments still decide.

Frequently asked questions

How many critical minerals are on the U.S. list?

The final 2025 U.S. List of Critical Minerals contains 60 minerals, up from 50 on the 2022 list. It is scheduled to be reviewed regularly.

Are rare earth elements actually rare?

Most are not scarce in the Earth's crust. Economically minable concentrations are uncommon, and separating the chemically similar elements from one another is difficult.

Which rare earths are most critical?

The magnet elements neodymium, praseodymium, dysprosium and terbium get the most attention, because of magnet demand and because refining is about 91% concentrated in China.

Is lithium a critical mineral?

Yes. Lithium is on both the U.S. list and the EU critical raw materials list, and batteries account for an estimated 88% of its global use.

Why are cobalt-free batteries important?

About 73% of mined cobalt came from one country in 2025, so cobalt-free chemistries such as LFP reduce exposure to a concentrated supply chain.

Explore the data on LatticeGraph

LatticeGraph compound pages show computed structures, stability and band gaps aggregated from multiple DFT databases, plus literature synthesis recipes and patents. Useful starting points include Nd2O3, Dy2O3, CeO2, LiFePO4 and the rare earth permanent magnets class.