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Hello, David here with a new series of explainers from the briefing room.

In today's podcast, we look at rare earths and critical minerals.

Everyone seems to want them, but what are they and what are they used for?

Here with me is Ellie Suclut-Vala,

whose head of non-ferrous metal pricing at Argus, a provider of market

intelligence for the global commodity markets.

Any Suclid Vala, let's talk about rare earths first. What are they?

So rare earths refers to 17 specific minerals or elements.

If you were to look at the periodic table, you'd find them

largely grouped together. They comprise the lanthanide series plus itrium and scandium. So it's a group

of elements that are chemically similar in properties, although they perform a very diverse range

of functions. And we also tend to find them geologically

grouped together in the ground. And they're used for all sorts of things. They've become quite

famous because we can make very strong magnets out of them, which go into electric vehicles and

offshore wind turbines. But they also have loads of other uses in electronics, for example,

lots of military applications, and then quite traditional uses,

like glassmaking and ceramics and so on.

So it's a really diverse group of products.

And very quickly, is there any reason why we call them rare earths?

Well, they are famously, or famously within the metals industry,

not actually rare. You can find

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