Rare Earths: The Invisible Lifeline of Every Tech Industry

Aljif7's Blog
Friday 21 November, 2025
AREA: Finance News

It calls my attention a News about Rare Earth Market and I am updating some info about a Post I did on July 2025: The Rare Earth Market in 2025
(Screenshot by author)

Some facts to follow as an update to the Rare Earth Market, note that the crisis is not new, but silent:

Yttrium shortages are already causing disruptions. This isn’t future speculation — it’s happening now (as of Nov 2025).
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Demand Surge from Green Tech section should be expanded to include industrial, defense, and consumer electronics demand, which are equally vulnerable to rare earth bottlenecks. Yttrium’s crisis proves that not all critical REEs are tied to green energy — the entire modern industrial base is at risk.
Processing infrastructure remains a bottleneck. Even nations with reserves (like Vietnam or Brazil) struggle to produce refined, usable REEs without access to Chinese processing facilities — making diversification more complex than just mining.
The yttrium crisis underscores that recycling and substitution are no longer ‘green’ options — they are essential buffers against geopolitical supply shocks
The emerging yttrium crisis is likely to catalyze even faster action from Western and Asian governments, turning policy ambitions into urgent, funded programs.
Element-Specific Risks”: The rare earth market isn’t monolithic. Shortages can be highly targeted — affecting specific industries based on the unique properties of each element. Yttrium’s role in high-temperature alloys makes it irreplaceable in jet engines, highlighting that diversification must account for individual element dependencies.
Bottom line
The rare earth market is not just at a crossroads — it’s in the midst of a crisis of concentration. China’s dominance, once a structural concern, is now actively disrupting global manufacturing through shortages like yttrium. While green tech drives demand, the real vulnerability lies in every sector dependent on specialized materials — from jet engines to smartphones. The path forward requires not just diversifying mines, but building resilient processing chains, investing aggressively in recycling, and developing substitutes for each critical element. The future of technology won’t be decided by who has the most reserves — but by who can secure the most reliable, diversified, and sustainable supply of every single rare earth.

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