I don't think that day-to-day electronics demands much in the way of rare earths.Pappa wrote: Surely all the rare elements required for the electronics would be very expensive? I expect that, as we often see now, paying a human to do a job that could be done by a machine will be cheaper in many cases.
They are needed for high-end magnets and lasers and such like. Usually very specialised stuff, rather than ordinary electronics. Hard disks need some I think, but they are replaceable with ssds anyway.
I seem to remember that supercooled magnets used in superconductors need rare earths. That might be bollocks though.
They aren't actually all that rare. They are quite common in the Earth's crust. What is rare is ore containing economic concentration levels for mining. But if the prices go sky high, there is a lot of it out there in lower concentrations.
I bought some fridge magnets off ebay a few weeks ago, and they are ferro neodymium.
They are amazingly strong for their size, but they were only about one pound fifty for fifty of them. Not dear, even though they are tiny, they work well.
