1. China. Unsurprisingly, China has the highest reserves of rare earth minerals at 44 million MT.
Rare earth mining global distribution by country 2021
As of 2021, China produced more than half of the total global rare earth mine production. In a distant second place was the United States, accounting for a 15.5 percent share of the global rare earths production that year.
According to estimates, the total worldwide reserves of rare earths amount to approximately 120 million metric tons. Most of these reserves are located within China, estimated at some 44 million metric tons. After China, the major rare earth countries based on reserve volume are Vietnam, Brazil, and Russia.
Australia is the world's top producer of lithium, rutile and the second largest producer of zircon and rare earth elements.
Their mining is also environmentally hazardous. The rare earths were discovered and first put to industrial use in the United States. But lower labor costs and less strict environmental regulations in China have now enabled the country to be the world's predominant supplier of rare earths.
As China's mining capacity expanded, rare earth producers in other countries began to shift their production to China to take advantage of the country's low labor costs and weak environmental regulations.
Furthermore, China has a more than 90% share of the global production of downstream rare earth products and technologies, including magnets, according to consultancy Tahuti Global.
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.
The Lynas Mt Weld mine in Western Australia is acknowledged as one of the world's premier rare earths deposits.
Gold. Australia's abundance of gold resources makes our country a prominent focus in the world's growing demand.
Australian rare earths production is based on Western Australian production of concentrates from Mount Weld and from trial mining and processing at Browns Range.
Over the past several decades, China has built up and cemented its dominance in global rare earths, and at its peak the country accounted for almost 98% of the world's raw rare earths production.
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.
China. Unsurprisingly, China has the highest reserves of rare earth minerals at 44 million MT. The country was also the world's leading rare earths producer in 2021 by a long shot, putting out 168,000 MT.
The Bayan Obo mine in Inner Mongolia, China is the world's biggest rare earth mine. China is the biggest producer of the rare earth elements in the world. The Bayan Obo mine in Inner Mongolia, China is the world's biggest rare earth mine.
As of today, China accounts for 63 percent of the world's rare earth mining, 85 percent of rare earth processing, and 92 percent of rare earth magnet production.
About 60% of Australia's gold resources occur in Western Australia, with the remainder in all other States and the Northern Territory.
Mount Whaleback Mine in Western Australia, was the largest mine in Australia, producing approximately 88.8 million metric tons per annum (mmtpa) of Run-of-Mine (ROM) in 2021.
Australia has plentiful supplies of natural resources, including the second largest accessible reserves of iron ore in the world, the fifth largest reserves of coal and significant gas resources. For a long time, commodities have made up a sizeable share of our exports.
Australia's soils are among the most nutrient poor and unproductive in the world. Very little of Australian soils are suited to agriculture, with most being shallow, high in salt and low in nutrients.
Australia has been a diamond producer since the nineteenth century. The largest diamond found so far in Australia was mined at the Merlin Mine, Northern Territory, in 2003 and weighed 104.73 carats.
Hence, Lithium is not a rare earth mineral.
China: The world's No. 1 metals consumer holds more than half of the known global reserves of 9 of the 14 most critical raw materials.
China has the world's largest reserves of rare earths, with its 44 million tonnes in 2021 making up over 36 per cent of global stockpiles, according to data from the US Geological Survey. And 78 per cent of the US' rare earth imports were from China, the government agency said.