What this place is
Bayan Obo is the single most consequential orebody in the rare-earth story. It was opened as an iron mine, and the rare earths were treated as a nuisance for decades before they became the point.
What comes out
Rare Earths (all)
A family of seventeen metals that are not actually rare in the ground, but are hard to separate from each other…
Cerium
The most abundant rare earth — more common in the crust than copper — mostly used as a polishing powder and in…
Iron Ore
Rust-coloured rock that is roughly one-third to two-thirds iron, and the single largest tonnage the mining industry…
Lanthanum
The first of the rare earths, used by the tonne in the catalysts that crack crude oil into petrol.
Neodymium
The rare earth at the heart of the strongest magnet ever made — the kind in headphones, hard drives, wind turbines…
Praseodymium
Neodymium's near-twin, so alike that magnet makers usually do not bother separating the two and sell them together as…
Niobium
A metal that makes steel much stronger when added in tiny amounts — a few hundred grams per tonne changes the whole…
A “by-product” is a metal recovered because it happens to be in the same rock, not because anyone went looking for it. Its supply therefore follows the primary metal’s economics, not its own.