A cursory googling for “peak rare earth metals” yields a likely affirmative response. Hafnium, Iridium, neodymium, lathanum, cerium, and several others are both necessary for modern electronics and/or EVs, and rapidly diminishing. Barring societal collapse or a new technological revolution on the scale of transistors, we’ll probably want to go out and get more within the century—and that’s not even including the advantage of avoiding the deletorious effects of mining on Earth.
A cursory googling for “peak rare earth metals” yields a likely affirmative response. Hafnium, Iridium, neodymium, lathanum, cerium, and several others are both necessary for modern electronics and/or EVs, and rapidly diminishing. Barring societal collapse or a new technological revolution on the scale of transistors, we’ll probably want to go out and get more within the century—and that’s not even including the advantage of avoiding the deletorious effects of mining on Earth.