As nations posture over access to rare earth deposits, scientists say these coveted materials are hiding in plain sight – and can be harvested without any conventional mining at all.
In a lab in Austria, two scientists are watching a fungus grow. Developing fungi form sprawling microscopic networks called mycelia, inserting themselves into nooks and crannies all around. Searching, spreading, feeding. It’s through the mycelium’s millions of tiny, root-like strands that the fungus draws up nutrients. But some fungi soak up other things, too. Things that humans want.
The lab fungus, at the University of Vienna, is growing in a petri dish and some clear plastic bags, across a special clay that has been purposely laced with rare earth elements. These sought-after elements are used in batteries, magnets, renewable energy devices and other tech. The scientists want to see whether the fungus can extract the rare earths for them. “You might be able, actually, to recover resources,” says Alexander Bismarck, head of the polymer and composite engineering group at the institution.
Rare earths are a group of 17 metallic elements, all chemically very similar to one another. They include dysprosium, yttrium and scandium, to name a few. Despite the name “rare earths”, they’re not actually very rare but scattered almost everywhere around the Earth. It’s just that these elements tend to be in fairly low concentrations in most places, which makes extracting a high volume of them difficult.
Given the usefulness of rare earths, interest in them is growing. US President Donald Trump, for one, says the US will spend $12bn (£8.8bn) on creating a “strategic reserve” of rare earths, and lately he has bullishly sought access to rare earth deposits in Ukraine and Greenland. Currently, China dominates the rare earths industry, with roughly 70% of rare earths mining and 90% of processing occurring within the country.