Part 2/7:
Contrary to their name, rare Earths are not inherently rare. Instead, they are often produced as byproducts during the mining of other macro metals such as nickel, copper, uranium, and platinum group metals, among others. Throughout the refining process of these primary metals, slag—a leftover material—can be processed further to extract rare Earths. This secondary extraction, however, is not only time-consuming and environmentally hazardous, but also demands significant financial and technical investment.