Abstract
Over the past several decades, global rare earth markets have ridden a dizzying roller coaster that has, at times, shaken the faith of industrial consumers in the reliability of supply chains for these critical materials. Today, rare earth production and associated supply chains are stronger and more diversified than at any other time in the last two decades. The industry, however, faces increasing pressure to expand to new levels of production and downstream sophistication in order to meet rising demand driven by advanced technologies and global decarbonization. As governments work to encourage more rare earth production around the world and, in particular critical cases, craft industrial strategies to ensure resilient operations of rare earth supply chains, it is important to understand the evolution of this industry. This presentation examines relevant events and interconnected factors – economic, technological, and geopolitical – that fashioned the current rare earth industrial landscape. It seeks to demystify and correct some misperceptions that persist. Finally, it makes reference to industrial and policy strategies that are being implemented with some success to encourage the continued growth and resiliency of this innovative and enormously important industry and draw lessons for the successful establishment of resilient, diversified, vertically integrated rare earth supply chains.