Rare earth elements in the global economy: Usage, recovery and the quest for supply security — A review

Rare earth elements (REEs) are essential inputs for modern technologies, including electric vehicles, permanent magnets, wind turbines, advanced electronics, energy systems, and specialized medical and defense applications. However, the challenge facing the REE sector is not simply the availability of geological resources; it is the combination of increasing technology-driven demand, technically challenging extraction and separation, and a highly concentrated global supply chain. This review demonstrates that long-term supply security cannot be achieved through new mining alone. A more resilient REE supply chain will require diversification of primary resources, development of secondary resources and waste-derived feedstocks, improved extraction and separation technologies, increased recycling, and international cooperation. By connecting REE applications, recovery technologies and geopolitical supply structures, this review provides a framework for understanding how technological and policy interventions can reduce supply-chain vulnerability and support the global transition toward low-carbon technologies. Background Rare earth elements comprise the lanthanides together with scandium and yttrium and are generally divided into light rare earth elements (LREEs) and heavy rare earth elements (HREEs). Despite their relatively widespread occurrence in the Earth’s crust, their dispersed distribution and association with complex mineral phases make economically viable extraction and separation challenging. Major primary REE resources include bastnaesite, monazite, xenotime, apatite and ion-adsorption clays, while significant opportunities also exist in industrial residues and wastes. The strategic importance of REEs originates from their unique physical and chemical properties. Different REEs are used in permanent magnets, catalysts, batteries, phosphors, optical materials, ceramics, lasers, advanced alloys and electronic devices. In particular, neodymium, praseodymium, dysprosium and terbium are closely associated with high-performance permanent magnets used in electric vehicles and other advanced technologies. Consequently, continued expansion of clean-energy and electrification technologies is expected to increase pressure on REE supply chains. At the same time, global REE production and processing remain geographically concentrated (Fig. 1). China accounts for approximately 60 percent of global REE mining and about 90 percent of processing capacity, creating a structural vulnerability for countries dependent on imported REE products. The uneven distribution of reserves and production further increases the geopolitical importance of REEs. Methods Fig. 1 Global distribution of rare earth oxide (a) reserves and (b) production, in 2024 based on U.S. Geological Survey data. This review integrates three dimensions of the REE sector: (1) industrial applications and technology-driven demand, (2) extraction and recovery from primary and secondary resources and (3) geopolitical factors affecting supply security. Peer-reviewed literature, authoritative reports and official statistics published primarily during 2015 to 2025 were considered, with particular emphasis on recent developments in extraction, separation, recycling, secondary-resource recovery and global supply-chain dynamics. Both LREEs and HREEs were considered, together with their principal mineral hosts, processing routes, applications and strategic importance. Results and discussion The review shows that REE demand is strongly linked to technological development rather than conventional commodity consumption. Their applications extend across energy, transportation, electronics, catalysis, optics, advanced materials, medicine and defense (Fig. 2). This broad application base means that supply disruptions can affect multiple industrial sectors simultaneously. From a processing perspective, no single recovery route is universally applicable to REE-bearing materials. Mineralogy and feedstock composition strongly determine the appropriate beneficiation and extraction strategy. Bastnaesite, for example, commonly requires calcination followed by acid leaching, whereas monazite and xenotime can be treated through acid or alkaline digestion. Ion-adsorption clays can be processed using comparatively mild leaching conditions. Following dissolution, mixed REEs may be recovered through precipitation, solvent extraction, ion exchange, adsorption, membrane processes or combinations of these techniques. An important finding of the review is the growing significance of secondary resources. Fly ash, phosphogypsum, mine wastes, coal-related residues, red mud, electronic wastes and waste waters can contain recoverable REE concentrations. Their utilization could simultaneously reduce waste-management burdens and provide additional domestic sources of critical elements. Recent research has also demonstrated increasingly sophisticated recovery approaches, including deep eutectic solvents, ionic liquids, biosorption, supported liquid membranes, electrochemical recovery and integrated leaching-separation processes. Fig. 2 Major application areas and uses of rare earth elements. Recent pilot-scale developments indicate that the field is moving beyond laboratory-scale, proof-of-concept studies toward integrated and potentially scalable processes. Examples include REE recovery from acid mine drainage, coal-related streams, NdFeB magnet waste and phosphate resources. Reported approaches include oxidation and pH-controlled precipitation, hydrometallurgical processing, adsorption, electrochemical recovery, and solvent-based separation. These developments demonstrate that secondary resources can contribute meaningfully to future REE supply if process efficiency, selectivity, economics and environmental performance are simultaneously addressed.Cerium represents an additional example of why selective separation is important. Although cerium has numerous applications, its comparatively low value and abundance in mixed REE concentrates can complicate downstream separation. Selective oxidation of Ce(III) to Ce(IV), followed by precipitation or related separation approaches, can therefore be advantageous for improving the efficiency of subsequent REE processing. From a supply-security perspective, diversification is particularly important for HREEs such as dysprosium and terbium, which are essential for high-performance permanent magnets. Developing alternative mining projects alone is unlikely to provide a rapid solution because new projects face high capital requirements, environmental constraints, long permitting periods and complex processing requirements. Recycling and recovery from secondary resources can therefore complement primary production while reducing dependence on geographically concentrated supply chains. Conclusions The global REE challenge is fundamentally a supply-chain resilience problem involving resources, technology, economics and geopolitics. Although alternative geological resources are available, the dominant position of China in mining, processing, separation and downstream manufacturing creates a significant barrier to rapid diversification.Future REE supply security will therefore depend on a portfolio of complementary strategies. These include responsible development of new primary resources, expansion of secondary-resource recovery, advancement of hydrometallurgical and biobased technologies, selective separation of individual REEs, recycling of end-of-life products, and scale-up of promising laboratory and pilot processes. International cooperation, strategic partnerships and supportive policies will also be necessary to establish economically viable alternative supply chains. The next decade will be particularly important. If technological development and investment in recovery, recycling and processing capacity keep pace with demand growth, secondary resources and diversified supply chains could substantially improve global REE resilience. If not, increasing demand for clean-energy and advanced technologies may further reinforce existing geographical and geopolitical vulnerabilities. References A list of all references is available in the full paper.

Rare earth elements in the global economy: Usage, recovery and the quest for supply security — A review

Authored by: Idris Demir, Asim Mustafa Ayten, Soner Top, Mahmut Altiner and Sait Kursunoglu

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