Ask where the world’s rare earths come from and most answers start with mines. The more useful question is where mixed concentrate is separated into individual oxides, turned into metal and alloy, and made into magnets. That middle step is where supply is tightest, and it is where ERTH Ferra spends most of its diligence.
Where the rock is
Mining is not the scarce part. The U.S. Geological Survey estimates world rare earth mine production at about 390,000 tons of rare earth oxide equivalent in 2024. China’s figure was 270,000 tons, a production quota that does not include undocumented output. The United States mined an estimated 45,000 tons of rare earth oxide in mineral concentrates the same year.
Where the value is made
The picture changes after the mine. The USGS estimates that U.S. net import reliance for rare earth compounds and metals was 80% in 2024, and that China supplied 70% of those imports from 2020 to 2023. It also notes that significant amounts of rare earths arrive already inside finished goods, as permanent magnets.
Looking ahead, the International Energy Agency’s Global Critical Minerals Outlook 2024 finds that, on announced projects, 77% of refined rare earths in 2030 would originate from China, and that the shares of the top three producing nations for refined materials have increased since 2020.
“A deposit is only as valuable as the plant that can separate it.”
ERTH Ferra
What that means for ERTH Ferra
ERTH Ferra Fund XII is set up for rare earths and magnets: hard-rock and clay deposits, separation and refining, magnet alloys and recycling. In practice, every project we look at gets the same first questions:
- Where will the concentrate be separated, and under what agreement?
- Does the separation route depend on a single plant or a single country?
- Who buys the oxide or the metal, and on what terms?
- Can recycling feed the same plant?
A project with a credible answer to the first question is worth more than a larger deposit without one. That is the lane ERTH Ferra works in: production-stage and construction-ready capital, with the processing step treated as part of the asset, not an afterthought.
Sources
- U.S. Geological Survey, Mineral Commodity Summaries 2025: Rare Earths (January 2025). pubs.usgs.gov
- International Energy Agency, Global Critical Minerals Outlook 2024, Executive summary (May 2024). www.iea.org
This note is for information only. It is not an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any interest in any fund. Interests are offered only through each vehicle’s own documents.