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Just having “rare earths” is meaningless, as they are 15, *fifteen*, different elements. And while several of them will tend to cluster together in a given ore, (and being chemically similar, are very hard to separate), as different elements, they have different properties. To make things even more confusing, there are two not-”rare earth” elements included with them, scandium and yttrium, just because they are typically found with them.

So you have a “rare earth” mine? Which “rare earth” elements are in it?

Lanthanum (La)
Cerium (Ce)
Praseodymium (Pr)
Neodymium (Nd)
Promethium (Pm)
Samarium (Sm)
Europium (Eu)
Gadolinium (Gd)
Terbium (Tb)
Dysprosium (Dy)
Holmium (Ho)
Erbium (Er)
Thulium (Tm)
Ytterbium (Yb)
Lutetium (Lu)

There are places in the U.S. that have rare earths, but getting the regulatory approvals and funding to do the mining can take decades. Mountain Pass in California is another rare Earth Mine that is in operation, Bokan mountain in Alaska, there was one in SE Missouri, Pea Ridge?, A privately owned materials company in Alabama, and there have been efforts during the Biden years to extract rare earths from Coal Mine tailings. The elk creek mine is in Nebraska. This company would also be doing their own processing.

Elk Creek project

"NioCorp is developing the Elk Creek Project in Southeast Nebraska, subject to receipt of sufficient project financing, that will produce 8 critical minerals including, niobium, scandium, titanium and several rare earth elements. Niobium is used to produce high-performance specialty alloys such as High Strength, Low Alloy steel, a lighter, stronger steel used in automotive, structural, defense, and energy infrastructure. Scandium is a specialty metal that can be combined with Aluminum to make alloys with increased strength and improved corrosion resistance and is also a critical component of high-efficiency solid oxide fuel cells. Titanium is used in various lightweight alloys and is a key component of pigments used in paper, paint and plastics and aerospace applications, armor, and medical implants. Magnetic rare earths, such as neodymium, praseodymium, terbium, and dysprosium are critical to the making of Neodymium-Iron-Boron magnets, which are used across a wide variety of defense and civilian applications."