What are ‘rare earth’ minerals? Turns out they are very important!

Here is an interesting supply and demand example. Did you know smart phones contain ‘rare earth’ minerals which are vital for them to work? I didn’t, but it turns out that these minerals were becoming scarce with China (who have 97% of the total supply) restricting supply, possibly to increase prices.

Well panic over because a Japanese company have found huge deposits of the minerals on the floor of the Pacific which could increase the known deposits by 1000 times. How would this look on a demand and supply diagram?

Great video to go with story