Rare Earth Elements in India 2025 : Why These 17 Metals Shape Global Industry

Last Updated on September 25, 2025 by Hemanth

The “Rare” Myth: Why Rare Earths Aren’t So Rare

A Geological Misnomer

Here’s a surprising fact that exposes one of geology’s greatest misnomers: cerium, classified among the so-called “rare earth elements,” actually ranks as the 25th-most-abundant element in Earth’s crust at 68 parts per million—more abundant than copper.

The term “rare earth elements” represents a historical misconception that has persisted for over two centuries. These 17 metals aren’t rare at all. The misleading name originated in the 18th century when scientists discovered these elements within complex oxides they called “earths”.

The 17 Elements: 15 Lanthanides + Scandium + Yttrium

Rare earth elements comprise 17 chemically similar metals: the 15 lanthanides (atomic numbers 57-71) plus scandium and yttrium. This complete collection includes:

• Lanthanum (La)
• Cerium (Ce)
• Praseodymium (Pr)
• Neodymium (Nd)
• Promethium (Pm)
• Samarium (Sm)
• Europium (Eu)
• Gadolinium (Gd)
• Terbium (Tb)
• Dysprosium (Dy)
• Holmium (Ho)
• Erbium (Er)
• Thulium (Tm)
• Ytterbium (Yb)
• Lutetium (Lu)
• Scandium (Sc)
• Yttrium (Y)

Scandium and yttrium aren’t lanthanides, but they’re classified as rare earths because they occur in the same ore deposits and exhibit similar chemical properties. These elements are categorised into two distinct groups:

Five elements—neodymium, terbium, yttrium, dysprosium, and europium—have been designated as “critical rare earth elements” due to their essential roles in advanced technologies and supply constraints.

Promethium stands apart as the rarest of all REEs, with no stable isotopes. It occurs only in trace quantities in natural materials.

Chemical Similarities and Why Separation Is Challenging

Rare earth elements are notoriously difficult to separate because they’re chemically alike. Most of them exist in a +3 oxidation state and have similar ionic sizes, making it hard to pull one out without extracting the others too.

This close resemblance is due to their electronic structure—the 4f orbitals fill gradually across the lanthanide series, while the outer electron shell remains almost unchanged. This leads to a phenomenon known as lanthanide contraction, where atomic size slightly decreases from lanthanum to lutetium.

Analogy: Imagine stacking more books on a shelf—eventually, they compress together, making the space between them smaller. That’s essentially what happens to rare earth ions down the group.

To make things harder, rare earth elements form extremely stable compounds, especially with phosphate ions, which makes them chemically tough to break down. That’s why most extraction processes involve aggressive leaching, high temperatures, and strong acids.

Key Takeaway: REEs are abundant yet economically challenging to produce.

Rare earth elements exist throughout Earth’s crust in quantities comparable to common metals like copper and zinc, but their dispersed nature and chemical similarities make economical extraction extraordinarily difficult. The complexity of separating these elements, coupled with environmental challenges, explains why production has concentrated in regions with either exceptional deposits or lower environmental standards. This technical reality underscores the strategic importance of developing advanced processing technologies alongside securing raw material access.

Abundance Doesn’t Equal Access

Abundance is one thing. Economically viable access is another. And that’s where China dominates—producing 81% of global REEs as of 2017. Over time, it has built a near-monopoly, refining over 85% of global output.

This imbalance introduces significant strategic risk, especially as global demand for REEs is expected to skyrocket fivefold by 2030—driven by the green energy transition and defense modernization.

A Sleeping Giant?

India is no stranger to rare earths. With the fifth-largest global reserves, especially in monazite-rich coastal sands, the country once contributed 5% of global output in 1993. Back then, the U.S. led at 33%, with Australia at 12% and China at 38%.

Fast forward to today, and China controls more than 90% of global production. India, meanwhile, has untapped reserves, outdated infrastructure, and policy inertia to overcome.

This article explores what the 17 rare earth elements are, why they’ve become critically important to global industries, and how countries like India are positioning themselves in this increasingly competitive strategic resource landscape.

Why Rare Earth Elements Matter Globally and to India

What makes rare earth elements truly remarkable isn’t their scarcity, but their extraordinary magnetic, luminescent, and electrochemical properties that power modern civilisation. 

These elements quietly enable over 200 products, from the smartphone in your pocket to the wind turbines generating clean energy and the missile guidance systems protecting nations.

The complete rare earth elements roster includes 15 lanthanides plus scandium and yttrium—all sharing similar chemical properties that make their separation extraordinarily challenging.

The 16 naturally occurring rare earth elements actually fall into the 50th percentile of elemental abundances. Collectively, they rank as the 22nd most abundant “element”. Thulium and lutetium, though least abundant, still appear at approximately 0.5 parts per million in Earth’s crust—about 200 times more abundant than gold.

The primary challenge involves their dispersed nature. As one researcher observed, “The ‘troublesome earths’ would have been a better name. The problem is, they’re just not that concentrated in one place”. Their average concentration in shale across the United States is merely around 300 milligrammes per kilogramme—”about what you’d get if you dug a hole in your backyard”.

Strategic Autonomy: Defence, Electronics, and Industrial Value Chains

Defence applications reveal the true strategic weight of rare earth elements. A US Virginia-class submarine requires approximately four tonnes of rare earth materials, whilst an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer needs more than two tonnes, and even an F-35 fighter aircraft contains over 400 kilogrammes.

These elements are essential for mission-critical components including:

• Missile guidance systems and antimissile defence
• Jet fighter engines and fin actuators
• Satellite communications
• Radar and sonar systems
• Tank motors and control systems

Beyond defence, REEs form the backbone of industrial value chains. Their economic importance lies not just in their value as raw materials but in their crucial role in numerous downstream industries such as electronics, defence technologies, electric vehicles, clean energy—sectors that contribute significantly to global GDP. Nations that control REE production gain considerable leverage over global technology supply chains.

The dependency is staggering. NATO remains almost 100% dependent on rare earths imports from China—a much higher rate than energy dependency on Russia, which varies from country to country and for which alternatives are available if necessary.

Clean Energy Revolution: EVs, Wind Turbines, and Solar Panels

The green energy transition has made REEs equally indispensable. According to International Energy Agency projections, demand for rare earths in clean energy technologies is expected to increase threefold in their Stated Policies Scenario and more than sevenfold in the Sustainable Development Scenario by 2040.

Wind turbines demonstrate this dependency clearly. An average permanent magnet contains 28.5% neodymium, 4.4% dysprosium, 1% boron and 66% iron and can weigh up to 4 tonnes. A 3MW direct drive turbine contains close to 2 tonnes of rare earth permanent magnets.

Electric vehicles present similar requirements. Each EV contains around 1-2kg of neodymium, dysprosium, and praseodymium magnets. The demand trajectory is dramatic—for neodymium alone, demand in low-carbon power generation and EVs could climb by more than 600% from 4,900 tonnes in 2020 to 37,700 tonnes in 2040.

Everyday Technology: Smartphones, LEDs, Medical Equipment

REEs are ubiquitous in consumer technology, though their presence remains largely invisible. Lanthanum makes up as much as 50% of digital camera lenses, including those in smartphones. Cerium is used in batteries and most devices with screens. Gadolinium is widely used in MRI contrast agents.

The glass industry is the largest consumer of REE raw materials, using them for glass polishing and as additives that provide colour and special optical properties. Yttrium, europium, and terbium phosphors create the red-green-blue colours in many light bulbs, panels, and televisions.

Key takeaway: REEs power critical technologies essential for growth and security.

One unique trend in the periodic table is called “lanthanide contraction.” As atomic number increases across the lanthanide series, the elements get progressively smaller—like books packed tighter on a shelf. This affects bonding, extraction, and refining behavior.

Rare Earth Elements in India: Reserves and Geographic Composition

India holds approximately 13.07 million tonnes of monazite, a mineral rich in rare earth elements (REEs), primarily along its eastern and western coastlines. These REE resources are concentrated in states like Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Odisha, and Andhra Pradesh, with inland discoveries such as Rajasthan’s Balotra deposit adding to the national inventory. Despite ranking among the top countries in monazite reserves, India contributes less than 1% to global REE production, highlighting a significant gap between potential and industrial output.

Coastal Dominance and Monazite Wealth

India holds approximately 13.07 million tonnes of monazite, a heavy mineral containing 55–60% total rare earth oxides (TREO). These deposits are concentrated in coastal sands across Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Odisha, and Andhra Pradesh, formed by natural weathering and ocean currents over millions of years.

The monazite is particularly rich in LREEs like cerium, lanthanum, neodymium, and praseodymium, which are vital for magnets, optics, and catalysts.

Inland Expansion and Hard-Rock Potential

While coastal regions dominate, inland discoveries are emerging. In 2023, the Department of Atomic Energy confirmed an in-situ hard-rock deposit of ~111,845 tonnes of REE oxides in Balotra, Rajasthan, offering mineralogical diversity and signaling future potential beyond beach placers.

Strategic Constraints in Composition

Despite its abundance, India’s REE reserves are overwhelmingly LREE-heavy. Critical HREEs like dysprosium and terbium—needed for high-temperature magnets and defense electronics—are not available in extractable concentrations.

Key Insight: India’s rare earth endowment offers scale but not diversity. Without HREEs and downstream capabilities, it risks remaining a low-value raw supplier in a high-value global supply chain.

Globally, rare earths are sourced from three main minerals—monazite, bastnäsite, and xenotime. Each has unique chemical and processing characteristics that influence a country’s industrial strategy.

India’s Rare Earth Processing Infrastructure

The processing of monazite involves a complex multi-step workflow that includes caustic digestion, leaching, filtration, and precipitation to isolate rare earth oxides. Unlike simple ores, monazite requires high-temperature treatment with sodium hydroxide to break down the phosphate matrix—a costly and technically intensive process.

IREL (India) Limited, established in 1950 stands as India’s sole processor of rare earth elements, yet its operations reveal the gap between the country’s geological potential and industrial reality. This public sector undertaking operates mining and mineral separation plants across strategic coastal locations, each serving distinct roles in India’s limited processing chain:

Odisha Sand Complex (OSCOM) at Chhatrapur 

Serving as the operational backbone of IREL,functions as IREL’s largest division, housing a Rare Earth Extraction Plant that produces mixed rare earth chloride. This facility processes the raw monazite into intermediate compounds for further refinement.

The plant recorded a 9.8% increase in chemical production, whereas the High Pure Rare Earths Plant saw a 9% decline as IREL controlled inventory buildup due to absence of a robust domestic mid-stream industry.

Rare Earth Division at Aluva, Kerala 

Acting as the final refinement stage in the chain, takes materials from OSCOM and processes them into high-purity rare earth oxides. The facility represents the downstream end of India’s processing capabilities, converting intermediate compounds into more valuable products.

Originally commissioned in 1952, underwent refurbishment in 2012 to process mixed rare earth chloride. Despite these upgrades, the facility produces only seven high-purity rare earth oxides—lanthanum, cerium, neodymium-praseodymium, samarium, europium, gadolinium, and yttrium.

Separating rare earth elements is difficult because their chemical properties are so similar. Industrially, this is done via solvent extraction—repeated cycles that slowly isolate each element. It’s like separating identical twins in a crowd using only minute differences in behavior.

Manavalakurichi plant in Kanyakumari district 

Supporting broader mineral recovery, maintains an annual production capacity of 91,200 tonnes of ilmenite and associated minerals, whilst the Chavara plant near Kollam, Kerala can produce 235,900 tonnes of ilmenite and associated minerals annually.

Rare Earth Permanent Magnet Plant in Visakhapatnam

As a step toward value addition, IREL has commissioned this plant with an annual capacity of 3,000 kg of samarium-cobalt magnets using indigenous technology. This facility represents a crucial step toward creating higher-value products from raw materials, though its modest scale underscores the challenges facing India’s rare earth value chain.

These facilities process India’s monazite reserves, but the infrastructure remains constrained by both capacity limitations and technological gaps that prevent the country from capturing greater value from its substantial geological endowment.

Environmental Impacts and Public Concerns

The environmental footprint of rare earth processing is substantial. For every tonne of rare earth produced, mining generates approximately:

• 13kg of dust
• 9,600-12,000 cubic metres of waste gas
• 75 cubic metres of wastewater
• One tonne of radioactive residue

Epidemiological studies have identified areas with severe REE pollution, with contaminated regions typically located near mining operations, residential areas, and traffic-heavy urban junctions. Long-term exposure can lead to REE accumulation in human blood, urine, and hair, presenting significant health risks.

These environmental trade-offs help explain why China’s dominance persists—the country accepted environmental costs that other nations find politically and socially unacceptable.

Global Supply Dynamics & India’s Strategic Position

The global rare earth elements supply chain represents one of the most concentrated resource monopolies in modern industrial history. This concentration creates profound vulnerabilities for countries dependent on these critical materials, ultimately reshaping international relations and industrial policy.

China’s Monopoly and Export Restrictions

China presently dominates every segment of the REE supply chain. As of 2023, it accounted for approximately 69% of global rare earth mining, 85% of purified light rare earths processing, and 100% of heavy rare earths processing. Beyond raw materials, China produces about 90% of rare earth permanent magnets worldwide.

This dominance stems from decades of strategic planning. Since the 1970s, Beijing has systematically developed its rare earth industry through calculated industrial decisions, scientific investments, and environmental trade-offs.

China has repeatedly demonstrated willingness to leverage this control. September 2010 marked a watershed moment when, following a diplomatic incident involving a Chinese fishing boat collision with Japanese coastguard vessels, China halted rare earth exports to Japan. The embargo caused Japanese industries—particularly automotive manufacturers—to panic, as Japan depended on China for nearly 90% of its rare earth imports. Prices soared tenfold within a year.

More recently, in April 2024, China imposed export restrictions on seven specific rare earth elements—samarium, gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium, lutetium, scandium, and yttrium—along with related magnets. This move came in response to US tariffs but affected global supply chains.

The economic viability of industrial projects outside China remains difficult to ensure, and it is now virtually impossible to find private players prepared to make heavy investments required to open new plants.

Diversification Efforts: Case Studies of the USA (Mountain Pass Mine) & Japan

USA’s Response: The Mountain Pass Mine in California represents America’s primary effort to reduce dependence on Chinese rare earths. Once the world’s leading rare earth producer until the 1980s, the mine fell dormant as China gained dominance. Since 2017, MP Materials has revitalised the site, now producing approximately 15% of global rare earth concentrate.

With INR 843.80 million from the Department of Defence, MP Materials is developing domestic processing capabilities. The company aims to begin separating rare earth oxides without sending materials to China—a crucial step toward supply chain independence.

Japan’s Comprehensive Strategy: Following the 2010 embargo, Japan implemented an exceptional five-pillar approach:

1. Developing technologies to reduce rare earth usage
2. Researching alternative materials
3. Promoting recycling through facility investments
4. Developing mines and acquiring interests in Australia and elsewhere
5. Establishing strategic stockpiles

The results have been impressive—Japan reduced its Chinese rare earth dependence from 90% to 60% and halved overall consumption. The speed and scale of Japan’s response, backed by a JPY100 billion budget (worth INR 101.26 billion), demonstrated exceptional urgency.

India’s Import Dependency and Strategic Risks

Unlike many countries, India possesses substantial rare earth reserves yet remains overwhelmingly import-dependent. India sourced 93% of its REEs from China in 2024-25, creating significant vulnerability. This dependency was starkly illustrated when China implemented export restrictions—Indian importers faced a cumbersome 40-45 day procurement process with multiple approvals required.

The consequences for India are severe. Industry bodies warned that production could be “severely impacted” if licencing obligations persist. The automobile sector faces particular risks, as the absence of even one element can halt assembly lines.

Map/Visual: Global REE Mining Hotspots

The global rare earth mining landscape beyond China includes several emerging players:

• USA: Mountain Pass Mine (California) – Primary light REE producer
• Australia: Browns Range – Developing dysprosium production
• Myanmar: Significant heavy REE mining sites
• Brazil: Holds 18% of global proven reserves
• Kazakhstan: Rich in 15 of 17 known REEs

Key takeaway: “Diversifying supply chains is crucial amid geopolitical risks.”

The rare earth supply chain remains a critical vulnerability for industrial nations worldwide. Countries pursuing energy transition and advanced manufacturing face an urgent imperative: establishing diverse, resilient supply networks becomes increasingly vital for economic security and industrial autonomy.

Recycling and Sustainability Efforts

The economics of rare earth recycling tell a compelling story that traditional mining cannot match. Currently, only 1% of REEs in end-of-life products undergo recycling, yet experts project that within a decade, recycling could meet up to one-fourth of global rare earth demand.

The performance advantages are striking: producing neodymium through recycling computer hard drives generates 80% less toxic waste than traditional mining methods and consumes 60% less energy. These metrics demonstrate why recycling represents more than environmental responsibility—it’s becoming an economic imperative.

Several breakthrough technologies are reshaping the recycling landscape:

Circular economy principles offer substantial scale benefits. Maintaining material value within the economy could generate 701 kilotonnes of secondary supply whilst reducing demand by 2,306 kilotonnes over the next three decades. These volumes represent significant relief for primary supply constraints.

Effective implementation requires coordinated industry action. Electric vehicle magnet manufacturers need cooperation from OEMs and producers to establish collection systems for permanent magnets from end-of-life vehicles. Without systematic collection infrastructure, even superior recycling technology remains underutilised.

Digital technologies enhance transparency and traceability across supply chains, facilitating efficient recycling processes. International cooperation in REE governance becomes critical for implementing these circular economy strategies during sustainable transition.

Companies like Apple have pioneered innovative recycling initiatives, deploying robots named Daisy, Taz, and Dave to aid electronics and rare earth element recovery. These industrial-scale solutions demonstrate how technology partnerships can address recycling challenges.

Key Takeaway: Recycling technologies offer both environmental benefits and supply security advantages for rare earth management.

Current Challenges & Emerging Technologies

Revolutionary technologies like SuperLig® molecular recognition technology (MRT) are emerging as promising alternatives for selective separation of individual REEs. This green chemistry method operates at the molecular level, offering advantages over conventional techniques including rapid kinetics, simple elution chemistry, and minimal waste generation.

These technological advances could potentially unlock India’s processing potential while addressing environmental concerns that have historically limited rare earth development.

Key takeaway: Advanced processing capabilities remain India’s primary strategic challenge

Policy Initiatives & India’s Strategic Outlook

India’s rare earth strategy has shifted from passive resource holder to active strategic player. The country’s approach acknowledges a fundamental reality: possessing reserves means little without the infrastructure, technology, and policy framework to extract value from them.

National Critical Mineral Mission (NCMM)

The National Critical Mineral Mission (NCMM), launched in 2025, represents India’s most ambitious attempt to break free from import dependency. Under this mission, the Geological Survey of India will undertake 1,200 exploration projects between 2024-25 and 2030-31—a systematic effort to expand India’s known REE reserves beyond current estimates.

The government has opened mineral and rare earth elements exploration to private sector participation through thirteen exploration licences, marking a significant departure from the state-dominated approach that characterised previous decades.

Financial backing underpins these initiatives. A ₹5,000 crore scheme to promote domestic production of rare earth minerals and derived products like magnets awaits formal approval. This initiative operates within the broader ₹34,300 crore National Critical Mineral Mission. A complementary ₹1,500 crore recycling scheme targets valuable mineral recovery from industrial scrap and mining waste.

The Department of Atomic Energy continues its mandate through IREL (India) Limited, which processes rare earth elements from monazite. With letters of intent for three additional reserve deposits, IREL plans substantial domestic production enhancement.

Launched in 2025, the National Critical Mineral Mission (NCMM) represents India’s systematic response to these challenges.

Industry-Academia Collaborations (IMMT, BARC, IREL)

Government action alone cannot address the rare earth challenge. Industry-academia partnerships have emerged as essential components of India’s strategy. The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) President emphasises that collaboration between industry and government—which proved successful in semiconductors—will be crucial for solving rare minerals dependencies.

Current partnerships demonstrate this approach:

The Ministry of Electronics and IT actively supports material technologies through its research unit, the Centre for Materials for Electronics Technology (C-MET). These collaborations aim to develop technological alternatives, particularly relevant as China implemented strict export licencing on rare earth elements in April 2024.

Key takeaway: “India is positioning itself for strategic REE self-reliance through coordinated policy action.”

These initiatives share a common thread—reducing dependence on imported rare earths, primarily from China, which currently supplies 93% of India’s REE needs. The path forward demands sustained investment, policy support, and technological innovation across multiple domains.

Conclusion & Strategic Takeaways

Few materials command such strategic attention while remaining so poorly understood. These 17 metals—abundant yet difficult to extract, chemically similar yet uniquely powerful—have quietly become the foundation stones of modern industrial civilisation. Their properties enable over 200 products that span from consumer electronics to missile guidance systems, making them irreplaceable in both everyday life and national security.

China’s stranglehold across the entire value chain—69% of mining, 85% of light REE processing, and virtually 100% of heavy REE processing—represents perhaps the most concentrated resource monopoly in industrial history. Recent export restrictions serve as stark reminders of how supply disruptions can cripple manufacturing globally, particularly for nations like India that source 93% of their REEs from China.

India’s position embodies both promise and paradox. Despite holding 8% of global reserves and ranking third worldwide, the country contributes less than 1% to global production. The monazite-rich coastal deposits spanning Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Odisha, and Andhra Pradesh contain substantial resources, yet regulatory constraints, technical barriers, and environmental challenges have kept this potential largely untapped.

Diversification strategies offer hope for supply security. The USA’s revitalised Mountain Pass Mine and Japan’s comprehensive five-pillar approach—which successfully reduced Chinese dependence from 90% to 60%—provide valuable blueprints for India’s strategic planning.

The National Critical Mineral Mission, coupled with government schemes and industry-academia partnerships, marks a pivotal shift toward REE self-reliance. Recycling technologies present sustainable alternatives, potentially meeting up to one-fourth of global demand within a decade while reducing environmental impact.

Rare earth elements will remain critical assets in the geopolitical landscape. Their role in powering everything from smartphones to hypersonic missiles ensures their strategic importance will only intensify. Countries that develop robust domestic capabilities—from exploration and extraction through processing and manufacturing—will secure significant advantages in industrial competitiveness and national security.

India possesses both geological resources and technical potential to become a major player in the global rare earth arena. The challenge lies in converting potential into production through sustained investment, policy support, and technological innovation. Success in this endeavour could reshape not only India’s industrial landscape but also the global balance of power in critical materials.

Key Takeaway: The nation that masters rare earth processing will hold the keys to 21st-century technological supremacy.

Should India aggressively expand its rare earth value chain — or proceed cautiously given the environmental and regulatory challenges?
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