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List of 42 Rare Earths, Metals and Minerals

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Rare metals can be considered rare in different ways depending on whether the classification is based on chemical or economic criteria – platinum and palladium, for example, are considered rare metals due to their scarcity but they are also considered two of the four precious metals. The so-called Platinum Group of Metals consists of platinum, palladium, rhodium, iridium, osmium and ruthenium. Most of these are valuable for industrial uses due to their resistance to corrosion and their conductivity. The following is a brief list of the rare metals, earths and minerals that some mining companies will seek out and produce.

• platinum
• palladium
• rhodium
• iridium
• osmium
• ruthenium
• molybdenum
• manganese
• lutetium
• vanadium
• rubidium
• chromium
• europium
• erbium
• lithium (see my list of Canadian lithium miners)
• thorium
• hafnium
• holmium
• gallium
• germanium
• gadolinium
• indium
• cesium
• beryllium
• zirconium
• promethium
• praseodymium
• niobium
• tantalum
• titanium
• tin
• thulium
• uranium (see my list of Canadian uranium stocks)
• yttrium
• ytterbium
• scandium
• samarium
• cerium metals
• neodymium
• terbium
• dysprosium
• lanthanum, lanthanide series metals

Sound obscure and too much like your highschool chemistry class? These last four on the list in particular, though, are what allow Toyota’s Prius to run. Without them, the Prius would not be possible. In fact – because of the Prius and similar cars, worldwide demand is expected to more than double for these rare metals in the short term. The Prius uses a whopping one kilogram of neodymium alone, for example. Also, your cellphone has some tantalum in it. And you have no doubt used lithium batteries