Rare Earth Elements: What and Where They Are

Abstract

REE are often misunderstood, beginning from the grouping of the relevant elements to the etymological misconception, that REE are rare or the fact that REE are ‘more abundant than gold’. Thus REE can get the impetus of being very abundant, which is only part of the truth. As well the allegation ‘‘The term rare earth is actually a misnomer’’ [1, p. 3] shows a cursory view of these metals. This view is for most purposes probably good enough, like the need for a 5- min-overview of the REE. The problem here lies in a possible wrong perception which finally gets to a seemingly hard fact because ‘everybody says so’. In order to get a scientific plausible picture, several definitions are given at the beginning.