ABSTRACT
Recently, there has been a renewed interest in the security of supply of non-energy minerals, especially in the context of technology metals used for manufacturing of low-carbon energy technologies. One of the most discussed is the group of elements called rare earths. The recent surge in their demand has been driven by the increased deployment of electric vehicles and wind turbines. In particular, the demand for dysprosium and neodymium, the two rare earth elements used for the production of neodymium-iron-boron permanent magnets, has been projected to increase by 2600% and 700% respectively, by 2035 (Alonso et al., 2012). Additionally, the rare earth supply side is concentrated in China, which currently holds a monopoly of 85% of total market share (U.S. Geological Survey, 2015), and is further skewed due to some resource nationalist policies, along with the inability of the other consumer countries to set up domestic supply chains. Taken together, the increasing demand and the institutional inefficiencies of the market, adversely affect the stability of rare earth supply and pricing.
