this post was submitted on 11 May 2026
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RARE EARTH METALS ARE NOT RARE!
Lithium is the 25th most abundant element in Earth's crust!
we see these head lines all the time because it is everywhere, the problem has never been finding it, it's been refining it, and china has a Monopoly on the refining techniques and refuses to do business with anyone who tries to adopt the technology and restricts travel of the people with the knowledge to do so.
Lithium is literally named after stone. No one ever claimed it is rare.
When an X deposit is found, it means that a place has been found where an unusual concentration of a material in an easy/cheap-to-extract form has been found.
There are thousands of tons of gold in the ocean water. But no one would call the ocean a gold deposit. Because it would require a ton of effort/money to extract a tiny amount of gold from the ocean.
All true, but lithium is not a rare earth metal.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rare-earth_element
Lithium isn't a rare earth