In the past several years, a veritable gold rush has kicked off around the world to shore up supply chains of ‘rare earth elements’ central to the manufacturing processes of clean energy and other tech components from electric vehicle batteries and solar panels to smartphones. While the 17 elements on the periodic table known as ‘rare earths’ are the subject of much dealmaking and anxious market speculation, ‘rare’ is a bit of a misnomer. Most of these elements are actually quite abundant in nature, although…
