Commentary The United States is vastly behind the times when it comes to rare-earth elements, and its reluctance to embrace the mining and processing of rare earths has created quite the conundrum. What is rare earth? Often called rare earths, rare-earth minerals, rare-earth metals, and rare-earth elements are the same. The group contains 17 chemical elements, including lanthanum, cerium, praseodymium, neodymium, promethium, samarium, europium, gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium, holmium, erbium, thulium, ytterbium, lutetium, scandium, and yttrium. Rare-earth elements are essential for products we use and consume every day, especially for high-tech items like computers, iPhones, lasers, defense systems. The term “rare earth” is slightly misleading as rare-earth metals are found all over the world. While rare earths are relatively abundant in the Earth’s crust, the extractable concentrations are less common than most other mineral commodities. They are rarely found in large deposits on their own and tend to group with other …