Rare earth elements are commonly defined as 17 chemical elements: the 15 lanthanides, plus scandium and yttrium. The name does not mean that every one is scarce in Earth’s crust; the harder-to-find resource is a deposit concentrated enough to mine economically.
Which elements are rare earths?
The common broad definition includes the 15 lanthanides, scandium, and yttrium. The lanthanides are the elements from lanthanum (atomic number 57) through lutetium (atomic number 71).
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| Part of the group | Elements |
|---|---|
| Lanthanides (15) | Lanthanum, cerium, praseodymium, neodymium, promethium, samarium, europium, gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium, holmium, erbium, thulium, ytterbium, and lutetium |
| Common additions | Scandium and yttrium |
USGS’s National Minerals Information Center uses this broad grouping, describing rare earths as “a relatively abundant group of 17 elements composed of scandium, yttrium, and the lanthanides.” Yttrium is grouped with the lanthanides because of chemical and physical similarities and natural affinities. Promethium belongs to the 15 lanthanides, though a USGS fact sheet says it does not occur in Earth’s crust.
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“Lanthanides” has a precise scope: the 15 elements from lanthanum to lutetium. Sources may then use “rare earth elements” for those 15 alone, for the 15 plus yttrium, or for the broad 17-element group that also includes scandium. USGS publications use these formulations in different contexts. The difference is a convention about group membership, not a dispute over the lanthanides’ identities or atomic numbers.
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For a quick reference, the 17-element definition is widely used; when precision matters, check whether a source explicitly includes scandium and yttrium.
Are rare earth elements actually rare?
Not uniformly. “Rare” is a misleading name if read as a claim that all 17 elements occur only in tiny amounts. USGS gives crustal-abundance examples of 60 parts per million for cerium and about 0.5 parts per million each for thulium and lutetium. The figures describe average crustal abundance, not how much can be recovered from a particular deposit.
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The practical constraint is geological concentration: USGS notes that deposits concentrated enough to be economically useful are limited. An element can be present in the crust yet difficult or uneconomic to extract where it is dispersed or mixed with other materials.
Where are rare earths found?
Economic sources include bastnaesite, monazite, loparite, and lateritic ion-adsorption clays. These are minerals or deposit types that contain rare earth elements; they are not additional elements in the group. The elements occur together in different proportions, so a deposit’s composition matters.
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What are rare earth elements used for?
Uses vary by element and material; the group members are not interchangeable. USGS examples include rare-earth materials for glass polishing and for adding color or optical properties to glass, lanthanum-based catalysts in petroleum refining, cerium-based catalysts in automotive catalytic converters, and magnets as a growing application. These examples describe particular uses, not a claim that every rare earth is used in each application.
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