Rare earths
REE · primary
Bottom line
Rare earths sits on 1 federal critical-minerals list; mine supply is highly concentrated (HHI 0.51, 2025), led by 🇨🇳 China at 69% of output. The US is 67% net import-reliant (2025).
At a glance
Headline indicators
Price · 2025e
6dollars per kilogram
USGS MCS (Mischmetal, 65% cerium, 35% la) · source marks this value estimated
US net import reliance · 2025
67%
Mine production HHI
0.51
Highly concentrated · 2025
From ore to use
lifecycle flow
- 01Reserves
85.0Mt
China leads · 52% share
- 02Production
389.3Kt
China top · 2025
- 03Trade
7.2Kt
net importer · 2025
- 04Stocks
-
- 05Consumption
27.0Kt
Consumption, apparent, compounds and metals · 2025
Process engineering
3 PROMMIS flowsheets
PROMMIS · uky
Open workbench →Primary REE recovery from coal byproducts: leaching → solvent extraction (rougher + cleaner) → precipitation → roasting. Reports per-metal recoveries + overall product purity at the canonical UKy reference flowsheet.
commodity: rare_earths · suggested axis: leach_liquid_feed_rate_l_per_hr · y: overall_ree_recovery_pct
PROMMIS · hydrogen_decrepitation
Open workbench →End-of-life route: H2-atmosphere embrittlement of NdFeB permanent magnets recovered from HDDs - the physical pre-treatment that makes the magnet matrix millable before separation.
commodity: rare_earths · suggested axis: operating_temperature_k · y: nd_mass_frac_product_pct
PROMMIS · cmi
Open workbench →End-of-life route: the CMI hydrometallurgical process - copper-nitrate dissolution → pH adjustment → oxalate precipitation → calcination to Nd-oxide. A wet alternative to hydrogen decrepitation for NdFeB recycling.
commodity: rare_earths · suggested axis: nd_magnet_conversion · y: nd_recovery_pct
Model inputs
Export for GCAM
This commodity's rows from strata's GCAM-CMM input bundle - graded supply curves (USGS reserves × benchmark cost model, 1975 USD/kg per GCAM convention), demand intensities, and the basis lineage that says exactly what each figure counts. These are inputs toGCAM: strata is the data; the model and its runs are PNNL's. Every file keeps its provenance header.
- Supply curve (A11)
- Demand intensity (A32)
- Demand mapping (A33)
- Basis & lineage (A10)
- Reference prices (A10)
- MCS reserves
- MCS production
Whole tables: A11 · A10 info · A32 · bundle manifest · intensity API (JSON)
Coverage
Data coverage notes
- no dataNo commodity-decomposed scrap or end-of-life flows - No USGS MCS Fig13 scrap rows. EU WEEE / battery EOL flows (Phase 6.1.1) are country-keyed only - see country profiles.
- datedExport-restriction inventory ends 2020 - The OECD industrial-raw-materials inventory (vendored snapshot) reports HS-line measures only through 2020; restrictions enacted since are not reflected in the measure table.
- narrowConsumption geography is single-economy (United States) - Reported consumption covers one economy only - the world usage split must be read from trade flows, not from a consumption table.
Methodology
How strata reads a commodity
The eight-stage lens, the observed-vs-estimated membrane, stage-honest supply, per-stage concentration, ownership resolution and the demand lens - the full method is illustrated live on copper, nickel and lithium.
Provenance
Where this data comes from
- BGS World Mineral Statistics
- IEA Critical Minerals Dataset (CMO 2025)
midstream_components_seed
ownership_control_seed
sec_edgar_ex96_pdf
- USGS DS-140 (constant 1998 USD)
- USGS DS-140 (nominal)
- USGS MCS (Mischmetal, 65% cerium, 35% la)
- USGS MCS (Neodymium-praseodymium (NdPr) )
- USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026
- USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries World Data (legacy wide format, 2023-2025 vintages)
- USGS Minerals Yearbook OFR 2025-1047
- USGS Minerals Yearbook Vol III, reference year 2019
usgs_critmin_deposits_v3
usgs_mrds_2016
usgs_pp1802_global
usgs_world_phosphate
usmin_critical_deposits
19 sources · titles open the source card · url opens the publisher