As seen in the chart, rare-earth elements are found on earth at similar concentrations to many common transition metals. The most abundant rare-earth element is cerium, which is actually the 25th most abundant element in Earth's crust, having 68 parts per million (about as common as copper).
The elements range in crustal abundance from cerium, the 25th most abundant element of the 78 common elements in the Earth's crust at 60 parts per million, to thulium and lutetium, the least abundant rare-earth elements at about 0.5 part per million.
Australia is the world's top producer of lithium, rutile and the second largest producer of zircon and rare earth elements.
Cerium – the most abundant of the rare earth metals – is in fact the 25th most abundant element in the world, making it as plentiful as copper. It is followed by lanthanum and neodymium; all three are more abundant than lead.
The majority of rare earth minerals are mined in China because that country has the majority of mining facilities in operation.
Australian rare earths production is based on Western Australian production of concentrates from Mount Weld and from trial mining and processing at Browns Range.
Hence, Lithium is not a rare earth mineral.
Painite : Not just the rarest gemstone, but also the rarest mineral on earth, Painite holds the Guinness World Record for it. After its discovery in the year 1951, there existed only 2 specimens of Painite for the next many decades.
The rarest stable metal is tantalum. The rarest metal on earth is actually francium, but because this unstable element has a half life of a mere 22 minutes, it has no practical use.
Half a century ago, the U.S. Mountain Pass Mine was the leading producer of rare earths. But concerns around environmental costs associated with radioactive waste disposal related to REE production pushed a lot of production to China, where companies enjoyed lax environmental regulations.
Australia is one of the world's leading producers of bauxite (aluminium ore), iron ore, lithium, gold, lead, diamond, rare earth elements, uranium, and zinc. Australia also has large mineral sand deposits of ilmenite, zircon and rutile.
Gold. Australia's abundance of gold resources makes our country a prominent focus in the world's growing demand.
Palladium is the most expensive of the four major precious metals – gold, silver and platinum being the others.
Tungsten is classified as a rare metal though it's found in many countries. It is indispensable because of its many applications. It's the second hardest material with the second highest melting point (diamonds ranks as first in both categories), and thus there are few materials that can be substituted for it.
Titanium occurs in the earth's crust only in connection with oxygen as an oxide. It is by no means rare, with a content of 0,565% it ranks 9th in the element abundance in the continental crust.
Metals of the Bible - Gold
During the biblical period, just as today, gold served as a store of value, a symbol of wealth and prominence, and a jewelry metal. It was obtained in trade mainly from sources in Egypt, the Arabian Peninsula, India, and the Sinai Peninsula.
Tungsten
Tungsten, which is Swedish for "heavy stone," is the strongest metal in the world. It was identified as a new element in 1781. It is commonly used to make bullets and missiles, metal evaporation work, manufacturing of paints, creating electron and Television tubes, and making glass to metal seals.
Ammolite. In 1981, the World Jewellery Confederation (CIBJO) declared ammolite a new organic gem. Occurring in limited deposits in the Rocky Mountains, this gem material is much rarer than diamond.
If translated into numbers, platinum—for all of its known deposits—is considerably more rare than gold and is the rarest metal of all.
Because the stone is effectively priceless, the likelihood of finding painite on the market is slim. And should you find it, painite runs $50,000 – $60,000 per carat. The honor of “Most Rare and Expensive Gem” goes to the Pink Star Diamond.
Where is lithium available from? With 8 million tons, Chile has the world's largest known lithium reserves. This puts the South American country ahead of Australia (2.7 million tons), Argentina (2 million tons) and China (1 million tons). Within Europe, Portugal has smaller quantities of the valuable raw material.
Lithium is well-known for its role in laptop and smartphone batteries but it's also a key component of electric vehicles, once again, for creating a power supply. Unfortunately, the planet seems to be running out of this important substance. It's also rather rare around the world.
Because lithium is not an infinite resource. In fact, according to Kipping, once EVs dominate the car market, there's about 70 years' worth of lithium until the identified global reserves are themselves depleted.