When we read something like these –

Scandium, Yttrium, Lanthanum, Cerium, Praseodymium, Neodymium, Promethium, Samarium, Europium, Gadolinium, Terbium, Dysprosium, Holmium, Erbium, Thulium, Ytterbium , Lutetium- these names don’t strike an immediate recall or perhaps sways our mind to think, under a pandemic situation, that are they the new variants of Corona, ZIca or Ebola viruses in second and third waves?

 Well, they are a bunch of seventeen Rare Earth Metals for that the ores are not so rare, but the elemental metals are very rare and often defined in PPM (Parts per million unit) and in a case also in PPB (Parts per billion unit).

 Its applications in our daily lives are so extensive and invisible that we have taken most of the things for granted as integral part of lives. 

 Well, it is and it is extremely pervasive in our lives from morning alarm to post dinner quick coffee and snacks fix, it seeps in our lives and almost all activities that we do on a day to day basis and remain blissfully unaware.

 For an iPhone to vibrate, for AirPods to play music, for wind turbines to generate power and for a Toyota Prius or Tesla Model 3′s motor to spin, they need powerful magnets. If you combine neodymium with iron and boron, one can make a neodymium-iron-boron magnet, which is the most powerful type of permanent magnet ever created.

In the case of our cell phone and ear-buds, using neodymium magnets means they can be physically tiny but still strong. For motors, using permanent magnets means powerful, efficient motors with fewer electromagnetic components.

 We use them in our Jet Air Travels, All Colour TVs, Smart Phones, Laptops, Microwaves, Camera lenses, LED Bulbs, Cars, Batteries, Gas Lighter flints, Spark Plugs, Jewelleries, in Medical Diagnostics- like PET Scans, MRI, Chemotherapies, Contrasting Agents for PET & MRI Scans etc.

 In defence, which is mostly not visible to us, the use is even more critical. Fighter jets, Aerospace Components, Laser Guided Bombs and Missiles, Submarine Telescopes, Nuclear Batteries, Electro Magnetic Guns, Radars, Frequency Jammers, Night Vision glasses & Binoculars, Telescope, Radars, Tanks, Ships and pretty much most critical hardware that is used by Army, Navy & Air Force.   

 In industries the use of Rare earth metals & its alloys are far more extensive ( though all of them can be in use for Defence, Consumer Goods & Electronic, Medical Analytics & Medicines broadly) and some of them are like- Industrial Lasers, Superconductors, Gas Turbines, Fuel Cells for Laptop and Electric Cars, Electro Ceramics used in Fuel Cells, Spark Plugs, CFL & CCFL, Halide and Neon Bulbs, Camera and refractive lenses for all kind of optical use, including Radiation Shielding Glasses for Nuclear Plants, Medical Diagnostics, Medicines, Hydrogen Storage, Oil Refineries, Coating for Turbine Blades- including Wind Turbines, Solar Fuel Cells, Powerful Permanent Magnets( all speakers would have that), Colorant for Enamel Glasses, Welding Glass Goggles, Luminous Paints, Ceramic Capacitors, Ceramic Brakes for high end cars (Bugati, RR, F1 etc), Optic Fibres, Stainless Steel, and so many more. The list can be perhaps “endless”.

 Today, that supply is coming from China. More than 80 percent of the world’s neodymium is produced there. In 2017 alone, China mined 105,000 metric tons of rare earth metals, while the U.S. has only produced about 43,000 metric tons in the last 20 years combined.

With erosion of USA as as rare earth producers in 60s and 70s, Chinese mines were developed in the 1980s and 90s, they gradually drove the USA Mountain Pass mine out of business on end pricing. The world allowed China to become a dominant force in manufacturing by avoiding such works from Developed worlds and environmental concerns that they gave up almost all “low-tech” processes and China capitalised by liberalisation of their economy from 80s.

The risks involved in relying so significantly on a single source for such a valuable commodity were illustrated during a trade dispute between China and Japan in 2010. The price per metric ton jumped from $50,000 in 2010 to $250,000 in 2011.

Japan ventured to capture a Chinese fishing trawler to Senkaku island for that China claims its sovereignty, China in retaliation jammed the supply of Rare Earth Metals to Japan that were so critical for its electronics and glass industries. Japan had to bend and swallow a bitter pill that gave the world a lesson plus an initiative back to be self reliant rather than to outsource.

The final list of 6,000 Chinese products that were targeted for tariffs by Trump Administration, Neodymium and other metals were exempted. It tells how important rare earth metals are to the U.S. economy. These elements are so important, that the U.S. is going to start producing rare earths again and become self sufficient by 2024.

Historically though, extracting and processing these materials have environmental consequences, a main reason why developed world gave up mining as it involved difficulties to open a mine in a particular place without destroying the landscapes and livelihoods that were previously there.

Rare earth elements contribute a total value of nearly $200 billion to the Indian economy and China today controls nearly 90% of global rare earth production, which is expected to come down to 60% by 2021 year end. A tough ask, if I may say so.

India has the world’s fifth-largest reserves of rare earth elements, nearly twice as much as Australia, but it imports most of its rare earth needs in finished form from its geopolitical rival, China.

As US-China geopolitical rivalry becomes a long term feature of the global economy, the globalised supply chains that have powered India’s economic growth can no longer be taken for granted.

Rare earth elements are central to this new post-pandemic economic landscape & the undeclared discussions in QUAD: they underpin everything from advanced ballistics systems to industrial machinery and TV screens, contributing a total value of nearly $200 billion to the Indian economy.

These developments offer India an opportunity. India has the world’s fifth-largest reserves of rare earth elements, nearly twice as much as Australia, but it imports most of its rare earth needs in finished form from its geopolitical rival, China. India, having natural resources strategic to its overall needs decided to send the ores to China and get back finished products.

In last twenty years, India has excelled in one thing- Sell of all PSU to private operators for a song. In last seven years, it has become a government mission and a priority to get rid of PSU, as Head of Government has plagiarised the famous line- Government has no business to stay in business. That is a dumbass statement coming from a state head, who is hell bent to sell off anything and everything to favour his cronies.

I guess he should learn something from the South Korean Chaebols that were sanctioned government resources to accelerate industrialisation to match Japan & others then. Result today is that despite democracy, the last say is always by the South Korean Chaebols.

India today has granted government corporations such as Indian Rare Earths Limited (IREL) a monopoly over the primary mineral that contains Rare Earth Elements: monazite beach sand, found in many coastal states. This PSU produces low value added upstream rare earth oxides and selling these to foreign firms that extract the metals and manufacture end products elsewhere.

Government’s focus is to provide thorium — extracted from monazite — to the Department of Atomic Energy. As such rare Earth Metals/ Elements production in India is conducted almost entirely by a government organisation that is focussed on something else entirely.

India is classic case of failure by getting blindsided and pathetic leadership politically that is a great disincentive to bright minds involved in critical needs and in PSUs.

India must invest heavily in its rare earth sector up to be self reliant and can experiment with a JV model that should bring in Capital in greener mining technology and innovation.

It is just a lack of focus on key areas and investing time and resources to create sound bytes, like Vishwa Guru, Start Up India, Skill India, Make in India. They sound good to naive political mass that are virtually semi literates to illiterates.

Now comes the Big Bang QUAD meet that is happening as I write this. India has a lot of ground to cover on account of frosty relationship with China, USA, Japan and Australia. India is just an appendage in this meeting and would have little to contribute and much more to ask. Thanks to our Swing & Promenade diplomacy where all protocols were shelved & continues to get shelved as our Government Head believes in personal Relation. China gave back with Ladakh as a trailer to its ability to strangulate, Pakistan gave back Pulwama, Relations between India and Australia have long been characterized by mutual indifference. With current US administration, the bonhomie can, at best, be described as frosty.

So what will India achieve- NOTHING, but a declaration to continue naval exercises and mutual co-operations and flaky benefits of easing of trade restriction with USA and China.

The biggest outcome would be US China relation thawing by easing of trade sanctions and in strategic area of common interests (without being deliberately specific) that would be restoration of world order in supply chain of Rare Earth Metals that USA needs desperately for its military hardware. 

China is no more a cog in the wheel, but is hub of the wheels that can decide strategic interests of the countries & that is not QUAD alone, but all.