Lynas is shaking up the supply chain for rare-earth metals

It has a mission to match: diversifying global rare earths supply chains and reducing the world’s reliance on China for the critical metals. If you’re wondering what rare earths are, worry not: Rare earths refers to a group of 17 metals crucial to the manufacturing of many electronic products that power the global economy, including cell phones, electric vehicles, aircraft engines, and wind turbines. There are “light” and “heavy” rare earths, based on their atomic number, and global demand for these metals is climbing.