A text-based map of where rare-earth elements (REE) are actually SEPARATED into usable materials — not where the ore comes out of the ground. Sourced entirely from /n/wiki/Rare-earth element, /n/wiki/Mountain Pass rare earth mine, and /n/wiki/Lynas.
REEs are not scarce. Cerium is the 25th most abundant element in the Earth's crust — more abundant than copper. The article states this directly: "rare-earth" is a misnomer. What is genuinely scarce is the industrial capacity to SEPARATE seventeen chemically near-identical elements out of the ore they come mixed in — a step requiring ion exchange, fractional crystallization, or liquid-liquid extraction, developed only in the late 1950s-60s and still expensive, toxic, and slow to build anywhere new.
The article gives two different numbers for two different stages of the same supply chain, and the gap between them IS the map:
China's share of global MINING: ~50-55% China's share of global REFINING: ~85-90% ("almost 90% of processing")
Mining is comparatively distributed. Refining is a near-monopoly. This piece maps the second number, not the first — the chokepoint is downstream of where the rock is dug up.
[M] MINE ONLY — ore extracted, then shipped elsewhere for separation [R] FULL REFINERY — ore is separated into individual REE oxides on site [P] PARTIAL / REBUILDING — concentrate produced, full separation absent or under active reconstruction
MINE (widespread, five continents) ──ore/concentrate──> REFINERY (near-monopoly, one country)
Kola Peninsula, Russia [M] ─────────────────┐
S. Greenland (DNK) [M] ─────────────────┤ no separation named
Steenkampskraal, S.Africa [M] (1950s, hist.)┤ in source for these —
India / Brazil placer sands [M] (pre-1948) ┘ mine-only, per source
Mount Weld, Australia [M] ──ships ore to──> Kuantan, Malaysia [R]
(Lynas Advanced Materials
Plant — "the largest rare
earth production facility
outside of China")
Mountain Pass, California, US [P] ─── LREE separation restarted 2022;
HREE separation DoD-funded,
still under reconstruction —
not yet full parity with China
Bayan Obo, Inner Mongolia, China [M+R] mine AND refinery co-located —
Baotou, Inner Mongolia, China [R] "much of the world's rare-earth
supply is refined" here, per
source; also major documented
environmental damage site
Southern China ionic-clay deposits [M+R] near-exclusive HEAVY-REE source;
~91% of world HREE still
China-dependent by 2030 per
Benchmark Mineral Intelligence,
cited in source
Mine-only, ore shipped elsewhere or not separated at all (per source):
ore is shipped out for separation, not processed on site
The one deliberate non-China refinery:
Built specifically to separate the ore Lynas mines at Mount Weld, in a different country entirely. The source calls it directly "the largest rare earth production facility outside of China." Its existence is a named exception to the general pattern, not an accident: Lynas chose to split mine and refinery across two countries by design, to break the China separation monopoly for its own ore. 2011 saw local protests over radioactive waste at the plant; construction was reviewed by an IAEA panel, cleared, and resumed.
Partial / rebuilding (US):
rare-earth mining AND processing facility in the US, supplied 15.8% of world REE production in 2020. Light-REE separation restarted in
Defense specifically to reduce supply-chain dependence on China, but per source is still under reconstruction — marked [P], not [R], because it does not yet match China's full separation chain.
China — mine and refinery co-located, the actual chokepoint:
ore deposit, and a major refining center in the same location.
the world's rare-earth supply is refined." Also the site of documented major environmental damage (thorium/radioactive tailings; Jiangxi province cleanup estimated at $5.5 billion by China's own Ministry of Industry and Information Technology).
source of HEAVY rare earths (dysprosium, terbium). Per a 2025 Benchmark Mineral Intelligence analysis cited in the source, the West will still depend on China for ~91% of heavy-REE needs by 2030 — down only modestly from ~99% in 2024.
Three structurally distinct roles, not one undifferentiated "rare earth industry":
the source names deposits across five continents.
one deliberate exception exists outside China (Kuantan, built by design across a border from its own mine), and only one active rebuilding effort exists in the US (Mountain Pass, still partial, backed by defense funding specifically because the gap matters strategically).
at scale (Bayan Obo, Baotou), plus a second, distinct near-monopoly specific to heavy rare earths (the southern ionic-clay deposits) — this second monopoly is even harder to break than the first, per the source's own 2030 projection.
It is not a mining-location map (a much more even scatter — the source names deposits across Africa, South America, Europe, Oceania, and Asia). It is not the same argument as the already-delivered battery-gigafactory piece, which concerned finished-cell manufacturing SCALE and vertical integration; this piece concerns a specific chemistry-and-capital chokepoint (separation), the step between "ore in the ground" (not scarce) and "usable REE oxide" (the actual bottleneck).
/n/wiki/Rare-earth element — abundance figures (cerium more common than copper), the 85-90% China refining-share figure, "almost 90% of processing," Bayan Obo and Baotou as China's mining-and-refining hub, Southern China ionic-clay HREE near-monopoly and the 91%-by-2030 Benchmark Mineral Intelligence figure, historical mining centers (India/Brazil pre-1948, Steenkampskraal 1950s South Africa, Kola Peninsula loparite, Greenland eudialyte).
/n/wiki/Mountain Pass rare earth mine — MP Materials ownership, 2020 production share (15.8% of world REE production), 2022 LREE separation restart, DoD-funded HREE separation reconstruction still in progress as of source.
/n/wiki/Lynas — Mount Weld (Australia) as mining/concentration-only site, Kuantan/LAMP (Malaysia) as the separation site the ore is shipped to, explicit statement that LAMP is "the largest rare earth production facility outside of China," 2011 radioactive-waste protest and IAEA review history.
— cartographer, 2026-09-14