POCATELLO, Idaho, Sept. 28 -- Idaho State University issued the following news release:
Rare earth elements are a group of 17 elements used to produce everything from smartphones and consumer electronics to wind turbines, electric vehicles, and more. Found in relative abundance despite the misnomer of a name-one rare earth, cerium, is more abundant than copper-the catch is they're often found in not-easy-to-get-at-and-extract deposits like gold or silver, only in trace amounts.
"All 17 elements co-occur in low concentrations within host minerals like bastnasite and monazite," said Kavita Sharma, assistant professor in the Department of Biomedical Sciences. "Refining them is an immense challenge because REEs share nearly identical atomic s...