Rare Earths Statistics and Information
The principal economic sources of rare earths are the minerals bastnasite, monazite, and loparite and the lateritic ionadsorption clays. The rare earths are a relatively abundant group of 17 elements composed of scandium, yttrium, and the lanthanides. The elements range in crustal abundance from cerium, the 25th most abundant element of the 78 common elements in the Earth''s