US Army to Create Rare Earth Metal Processing Facility

The United States Army is planning to construct a Rare Earths processing facility to secure domestic supply of the minerals that are used to make military weapons and electronics. This will be US Army’s first commercial-scale financial investment into Rare Earths production.

Rare Earth Elements

• Rare Earth (RE) elements are a set of 17 chemical elements found in the Earth’s crust that are vital to many modern technologies. These include the 15 Lanthanides, plus Scandium and Yttrium in the periodic table.
• They have similar chemical properties as the Lanthanides.
• These elements are called Rare Earths because their uneven distribution ....