Manasee Kurlekar

Brazil, India, Vietnam, and Russia hold large reserves of rare earth elements, but mine very little of them— Some technologies central to the clean energy transition depend on rare earth elements. The permanent magnets found in many electric vehicle motors and wind turbine generators rely on them. They are also used in some military hardware. China dominates global production of rare earths; in 2024, it accounted for nearly 70% of the global total. But the picture is not as concentrated when you examine which countries have rare-earth reserves. That is what the chart shows, plotting production and reserve shares side by side. China still holds the most known reserves, but at 49%, this is substantially lower than its production share. Brazil holds 23% of reserves and is barely mining them. India, Vietnam, and Russia also hold significant reserves, but only a small fraction of current output. The large gap between where reserves are located and where mining occurs partly reflects China's early investment in mining infrastructure and processing capacity, which other producers have not yet matched. Other countries hold the geological potential but have not yet developed the infrastructure to convert it into production at scale. (This Data Insight was written by @EOrtizOspina.)