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

Jim Riley

4th July 2011

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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

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Jim Riley

Jim co-founded tutor2u alongside his twin brother Geoff! Jim is a well-known Business writer and presenter as well as being one of the UK's leading educational technology entrepreneurs.

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