Rare Earth Elements | 60 Minutes Archive

60 Minutes rewind. Unusual metals that are sprinkled inside almost every piece of high tech you can think of. Most people have never heard of them, but we have become so reliant on rare earths that a few years ago an intense global power struggle broke out over their free flow.The reason is that one country has a virtual monopoly. roughly 90% of the mining, refining, and processing of rare earths, China. And in 2010, it used that power to disrupt the world supply.It's especially troubling because it was the ...