Girish Linganna

In the wake of the Ukraine war, the West has imposed severe sanctions on Russia, targeting especially its energy and financial sector. For instance, the EU nations have decided to stop importing any oil from Russia that comes in by sea. This rules out two-thirds of the Russian oil supply to the EU, hitting the economy quite strongly. The US is also banning Russian oil and gas imports. Additionally, USD630 billion worth of Russia’s foreign currency reserves are now unusable due to Western countries’ freezing its central bank assets.

Yet, some remain exempt from these measures. These products are the rare earth elements.

Rare Earth Resources

Rare Earth elements (REEs) refer to 17 chemical elements in the periodic table that tend to occur together in nature. They are silver, silvery-white, or grey metals that have high electrical conductivity and other common properties. Contrary to what their name suggests, these elements are available in abundance. They are rare not because they are not available in nature but because they occur