The rare earth minerals list has 17 members: the 15 lanthanides (atomic numbers 57–71) plus scandium and yttrium, which share similar chemistry and turn up in the same ore deposits. In 2025, global mine production totaled 390,000 tonnes, with China producing 270,000 tonnes (69% of world supply) and the United States producing the equivalent of 51,000 tonnes of rare-earth oxide worth $240 million, according to USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026. Below is every element, its symbol, its main source mineral, and what current government data says about supply, price, and import dependence.

The Rare Earth Minerals List: All 17 Elements

Here is the complete rare earth metals list, grouped the way geologists group them: 15 lanthanides, plus scandium and yttrium, which associate with the lanthanides in the same ore bodies and share their chemistry closely enough to be classified alongside them.

1. Lanthanum (La) — light rare earth, atomic number 57
2. Cerium (Ce) — light rare earth, atomic number 58, most abundant of the 17
3. Praseodymium (Pr) — light rare earth, atomic number 59
4. Neodymium (Nd) — light rare earth, atomic number 60
5. Promethium (Pm) — atomic number 61, radioactive, no stable isotopes, occurs only in trace amounts from uranium decay
6. Samarium (Sm) — atomic number 62
7. Europium (Eu) — atomic number 63
8. Gadolinium (Gd) — atomic number 64
9. Terbium (Tb) — heavy rare earth, atomic number 65
10. Dysprosium (Dy) — heavy rare earth, atomic number 66
11. Holmium (Ho) — heavy rare earth, atomic number 67
12. Erbium (Er) — heavy rare earth, atomic number 68
13. Thulium (Tm) — heavy rare earth, atomic number 69
14. Ytterbium (Yb) — heavy rare earth, atomic number 70
15. Lutetium (Lu) — heavy rare earth, atomic number 71
16. Scandium (Sc) — atomic number 21, chemically similar but geologically distinct
17. Yttrium (Y) — atomic number 39, classified as a heavy rare earth by convention

This same 17-element list answers several ways people phrase the search: a list of rare earth minerals, a list of rare earth metals, and a list of rare metals all point to this group, though “rare metals” in trade and defense contexts sometimes also includes non-lanthanide elements like tantalum, niobium, and tungsten that are scarce but chemically unrelated to the lanthanide series.

Rare Earths vs Rare Metals and Critical Minerals

Three terms get mixed up in searches. “Rare earth elements” is a fixed chemical group: the 17 elements listed above. “Rare metals” has no official definition and is used loosely in trade. “Critical minerals” is a government list based on supply risk.

In the United States, that list comes from USGS. The Final 2025 List of Critical Minerals, published in the Federal Register on November 7, 2025, has 60 entries. It keeps all 50 minerals from the 2022 list and adds 10 more.

Sixteen of the 17 rare earths appear on the 2025 list by name. Promethium is the only one left off. So every rare earth except promethium is a US critical mineral, but most critical minerals, such as lithium or cobalt, are not rare earths.

What Are Rare Earth Metals? Rarity vs. Reality

None of the 17 rare earth elements are geologically scarce — cerium is more common in the earth’s crust than copper. The name refers to how difficult they are to find in ore bodies concentrated enough to mine economically, and how hard they are to separate from one another once mined, since all 17 share nearly identical chemical behavior. The three principal ore minerals are bastnaesite (a fluorocarbonate, the main source in China’s Bayan Obo deposit and California’s Mountain Pass mine), monazite (a phosphate mineral that also carries thorium, requiring radioactive-waste handling during processing), and xenotime (a phosphate enriched in the heavier rare earths like dysprosium and yttrium).

USGS groups lanthanum through gadolinium (atomic numbers 57–64) as the “light” rare earths and terbium through lutetium (65–71), plus yttrium (39), as the “heavy” rare earths; some authorities also count europium and gadolinium as heavy. Light rare earths are far more abundant in typical ore and cost less to produce; heavy rare earths — especially dysprosium and terbium, used in high-strength permanent magnets — are scarcer in most deposits and command prices ten to a thousand times higher, a gap detailed in the pricing table below.

Rare Earth Ore Minerals and Major Deposits

According to a USGS fact sheet, economic rare earth deposits form in four settings: carbonatites, alkaline igneous rocks, ion-adsorption clays and monazite-xenotime placers.

• Bastnäsite, a rare earth carbonate-fluorine mineral, is the main ore mineral in the world’s largest deposits.
• Monazite, a rare earth-thorium phosphate, is recovered as a byproduct of mining beach sands for ilmenite, rutile and zircon.
• Xenotime (YPO₄) has been recovered as a source of yttrium, mostly as a byproduct of tin placers.
• Ion-adsorption clays in southern China are the world’s main source of heavy rare earths. They grade only about 0.04 to 0.25% rare earth oxides, but the metals come off the clay with weak acids.

Comparative Data Table: Sources, Prices, and Uses

Source minerals are drawn from standard USGS commodity descriptions; where an element occurs only as a trace byproduct (promethium, scandium), it is not mined as a primary ore target anywhere in the world.

Who Produces Them: US, China, Australia, Myanmar

USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026 reports 2025 mine production (rare-earth-oxide equivalent) as: China 270,000 tonnes, the United States 51,000 tonnes, Australia 29,000 tonnes, and Burma (Myanmar) 22,000 tonnes, against a global total of 390,000 tonnes. That puts China at 69% of world mine output, the US at 13%, Australia at 7%, and Myanmar at 6%, with the remaining roughly 5% spread across other producing countries. US production comes almost entirely as bastnaesite concentrate, mined at Mountain Pass, California, and valued at $240 million for 2025.

These are mine-production figures, not processing or magnet-manufacturing capacity — China’s dominance in separating and refining rare earths into usable oxides and metals is even larger than its mining share, though USGS does not publish a country-level breakdown of separation capacity in tonnes per year. Country-level separation-capacity estimates come from industry analysts rather than the USGS summary.

Rare Earth Metal Prices: What USGS and Market Data Show

Prices across the 17-element list span three orders of magnitude. USGS’s 2025 average oxide prices put lanthanum oxide at $1.00 per kg and cerium oxide at $1.71 per kg — the two most abundant, least differentiated elements — while dysprosium oxide averaged $239 per kg and terbium oxide averaged $1,010 per kg, reflecting their scarcity in typical ore and their necessity in high-performance magnets. Separately, Shanghai Metals Market quoted praseodymium-neodymium oxide (the magnet-grade blend) at $97.40 per kg as of August 4, 2026, per Rare Earth Market Report data.

That roughly 1,000-to-1 spread between lanthanum and terbium is the single most useful number for judging supply risk: elements clustered at the low end (La, Ce) are traded more like bulk commodities, while the high-priced heavy rare earths (Tb, Dy) are the ones defense and EV-motor supply chains actually worry about running short of. For a current Pr-Nd spot price, Shanghai Metals Market republishes daily — check Rare Earth Market Report or another mineral price aggregator rather than relying on a single cited date, since this figure moves week to week.

China’s Rare Earth Export Controls, 2025

Export licensing now matters as much as mine output for the heavier elements. USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026 records three steps in 2025:

• April 2025: China added controls on alloys, compounds, metals and oxides of samarium, gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium, lutetium, scandium and yttrium.
• October 2025: controls were widened to europium, holmium, erbium, thulium and ytterbium.
• November 2025: China suspended the October controls for one year. The April controls stayed in effect, though China began issuing general export licences to selected exporters.

USGS 2025 average prices for the April-listed elements, in US dollars per kg of oxide (USGS rare earths, heavy rare earths, yttrium, scandium):

The United States relied on imports for 100% of its heavy rare earths, yttrium and scandium in 2025, per USGS.

US Import Reliance and the Strategic Reserve

The United States imported an estimated 21,000 tonnes (REO equivalent) of rare-earth compounds and about 1,450 tonnes of rare-earth metals and alloys, including ferrocerium, in 2025, and USGS calculates net import reliance at 67% of US consumption for rare-earth compounds and metals overall — with scandium at 100% import reliance, since no US mine currently produces it as a primary product. From 2021 to 2024, 71% of US imports of rare-earth compounds and metals came from China, and catalysts were the leading US end use, while magnets led worldwide.

Washington’s policy response has been direct funding rather than tariffs alone: the White House’s Project Vault Initiative announced $12 billion for a Strategic Critical Minerals Reserve on February 2, 2026, aimed at reducing reliance on single-country supply, according to a Congressional Research Service brief. Whether that funding measurably shifts the 67% import-reliance figure will show up in USGS’s next annual summary and in the quarterly trade data USGS publishes on its commodity portal — that is the number to check before assuming today’s reliance figure still holds.

For the underlying government data behind every figure in this section, see USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026 (Rare Earths) and the Congressional Research Service brief on US rare earth supply chains.

Import Exposure Calculator

Estimate how much of your organization’s rare-earth material spend is exposed to China-origin supply, using USGS’s 2025 US import-share figures as your starting baseline.

Assumptions: uses USGS's 2025 US-wide average of 71% China-origin import share as the default — your own supplier mix may differ substantially by element and contract. Excludes domestic Mountain Pass-sourced material, price volatility, and processing/separation location (a metal mined outside China can still be refined there). Treat the output as a planning estimate, not an audit figure.

Rare Earth Elements in Agriculture & Precision Farming

Outside of defense and electronics, rare earths reach US and Canadian farms mainly through the equipment layer, not the field layer. Neodymium-iron-boron magnets are the standard permanent-magnet material in the electric motors that drive precision-ag equipment: autosteer actuators, planter-row drives, drone propulsion, and the servo motors in variable-rate spreaders. Cerium-based catalysts are used in engine exhaust catalytic converters (USGS), including on diesel farm machinery, though rare earths are not applied directly to soil in US or Canadian row-crop systems.

• Precision equipment motors: Neodymium magnets in drone motors and autosteer systems used across US corn, soy, and wheat operations tracked by USDA NASS.
• Emissions catalysts: Cerium-based catalysts in off-road diesel equipment meeting EPA Tier 4 Final standards.
• Traceability infrastructure: Blockchain and satellite verification systems that document sustainable sourcing across agricultural and mineral supply chains. Learn about traceability innovation here.
• Try it: Run your own numbers

None of this makes US or Canadian agriculture a major consumer of rare earths by volume — catalysts are the leading US end use of rare earths, per USGS, far ahead of agricultural-equipment demand. The connection is real but indirect: farm equipment manufacturers are exposed to the same 67% import-reliance and China-sourcing risk described above whenever they buy magnet-grade neodymium or dysprosium for motor production.

Rare Earth Metals in Mining and Mineral Processing

The mining sector both supplies rare earths and depends on them for its own equipment. Dysprosium- and terbium-stabilized magnets go into the heat-tolerant motors used in haul trucks, crushers, and continuous miners, since dysprosium raises a neodymium magnet's resistance to demagnetizing at high operating temperatures.

• Heat-resistant magnets: Dysprosium and terbium additives stabilize neodymium magnets in high-temperature mining equipment motors.
• Advanced ore separation: Rare-earth magnet technology underpins high-intensity magnetic separation used to concentrate valuable minerals and reject waste rock.
• Resource traceability: Satellite and blockchain verification supports carbon footprint tracking and reduces supply-chain fraud risk across mineral exports.

The strategic tension is direct: the same 2025 US production figure of 51,000 tonnes that makes Mountain Pass the country's only mine producing bastnaesite as a primary rare-earth product (monazite also comes from heavy-mineral-sand operations in the Southeast) also has to supply the magnet feedstock that US mining and defense manufacturers need, while 71% of actual US rare-earth imports still come from China. That gap is exactly what the $12 billion Project Vault Initiative reserve, announced February 2, 2026, is designed to narrow — though its measurable effect on import-reliance won't be visible until USGS's next annual and quarterly releases.

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Farmonaut: Satellite & AI Tools for Resource Management

Farmonaut provides satellite-based monitoring, AI advisory, and blockchain traceability for agriculture, mining, and forestry operations that need to document sustainable sourcing — including for supply chains that touch rare-earth-adjacent mineral operations.

• Real-time monitoring: Multispectral satellite imaging for crop and site-level mining oversight.
• AI advisory: The Jeevn AI system delivers operational recommendations across sectors.
• Blockchain traceability: Documentation across the agri-mineral supply chain. See transparency features.
• Fleet management: Reduces operational waste in vehicle-heavy operations. Discover the benefits.
• Environmental tracking: Carbon footprint monitoring for sustainability reporting.

Developers can integrate this data directly via the API and Developer Documentation. Operations managing large or distributed land holdings can use Farmonaut's Large Scale Farm Management tools, and fertilizer optimization tools pair directly with the cerium- and lanthanum-catalyst context discussed above. For broader context on the equipment layer these elements feed into, see agricultural technology innovations.

FAQ: Rare Earth Minerals List

1. What is the full rare earth minerals list?
   
   All 17 elements: lanthanum, cerium, praseodymium, neodymium, promethium, samarium, europium, gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium, holmium, erbium, thulium, ytterbium, lutetium, scandium, and yttrium.
2. Is the "rare earth metals list" the same as "rare earth elements list"?
   
   Yes — both terms refer to the same 17 elements. "Metals" and "elements" are used interchangeably in industry and government reporting.
3. Are rare earth minerals actually rare?
   
   No, not geologically — cerium alone is more common in the earth's crust than copper. They are called "rare" because they rarely occur in ore concentrations dense enough to mine economically, and because separating the 17 from each other is chemically difficult.
4. Which country produces the most rare earth minerals?
   
   China, at 270,000 tonnes of 2025 mine production against a global total of 390,000 tonnes — 69% of world supply, per USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026.
5. How reliant is the United States on imported rare earths?
   
   USGS put 2025 US net import reliance at 67% for rare-earth compounds and metals overall, and 100% for scandium specifically, with 71% of imports sourced from China.
6. What are individual US production volumes by element (La, Ce, Nd, etc.)?
   
   Not publicly published. USGS reports only the aggregate rare-earth-oxide-equivalent total (51,000 tonnes for 2025) and does not break this down by individual element in public releases. Element-specific volumes would need to come from Mountain Pass's operator directly or from proprietary market-research reports.
7. What are current US rare-earth reserves in metric tonnes?
   
   USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026 puts US rare-earth reserves at 1.9 million tonnes (REO equivalent), against more than 75 million tonnes worldwide, of which China holds 44 million tonnes (USGS).
8. How can I get the most current rare earth prices?
   
   Shanghai Metals Market updates praseodymium-neodymium oxide prices daily; check a current aggregator such as the Rare Earth Market Report linked above rather than relying on any single cited price, since spot prices shift week to week.

Conclusion

The rare earth minerals list is fixed at 17 elements, but the supply picture around them keeps moving: 390,000 tonnes of global mine production in 2025, a 1,000-to-1 price gap between the cheapest and most expensive oxides, and a US import-reliance figure of 67% that federal policy is now trying to bring down with direct funding. To keep using this page as a reference rather than a snapshot, check USGS's Mineral Commodity Summaries release each year for updated production and price figures, and track Shanghai Metals Market or a similar aggregator for spot prices between annual updates. The element list itself will not change; the numbers around it will, and that is the part worth re-checking.