The Education Branch
Rare earths, explained honestly.
Seventeen elements, four that matter, and one sentence most REE companies won't publish.
01 / What Are Rare Earths?
"Rare" means rarely concentrated.
Seventeen elements — the lanthanides plus scandium and yttrium — split into "light" and "heavy". They are not geologically rare; they are rarely concentrated enough to mine. Deposits come in two main styles: hard-rock (carbonatite intrusions, high grade, complex processing) and ionic-adsorption clay (lower grade, soft blanket, simple desorption — the style that supplies most heavy rare earths today, and the style at Carpentaria).
Where they end up: permanent magnets (the value), catalysts, phosphors, polishing media.
02 / The Magnet Metals
Nd & Pr carry the basket.
NdFeB permanent magnets are the strongest commercially available — every EV traction motor, wind-turbine generator and robot joint uses them. Neodymium and praseodymium (with dysprosium and terbium for high-temperature performance) carry [~85–90]% of a rare-earth basket's value in most market conditions. [Sourced demand chart, dated.]
Most rare-earth tonnage is lanthanum and cerium, which are near-valueless by-products. A deposit's worth lives in its magnet-metal fraction — which is why our resource tables state the Nd-Pr-Dy-Tb split explicitly.
03 / Supply & Demand
Concentrated where it counts.
Mining is concentrated in China — and separation even more so. Western supply-chain policy is responding: [US/AU/EU programs, price-floor mechanisms — cited and dated at publication]. An Australian clay-hosted project with a high magnet fraction fits precisely where allied procurement is looking.
Valdur's Carpentaria basket is [XX]% magnet REO — see the Mineral Resource tables.
This page goes stale fastest — reviewed quarterly, every figure dated.