Top 5 'rare earth' minerals: What are they?

Setting off speculation that China is manipulating exports to punish certain trade partners, Beijing announced in July it was slashing its six-month export quota of so-called 'rare earths' by 72 percent. Speculation continued this week with reports of an expanding embargo of the minerals.

But the so-called "rare earths" are neither rare nor does China have a lock on them. Although China produces 97 percent of the world's rare earths, it contains only 30 percent of the world's supply. The United States, Russia, and Australia all have significant reserves of the 17 elements essential in semiconducters, lasers, and other high-tech gadgets.

While mining them has proved uneconomical at usual world prices and environmentally harmful, that may be changing. Click through the following slides to read how rare earths are important to your daily life.

- Stephen Kurczy, Staff writer

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A fiber optic cable carrying 96 strands of optical fiber capable of transmitting voice and data, is a typical type of cabling that technicians install underground. They commonly use the rare earth element of erbium. (Newscom )

1. Erbium

Erbium (atomic no. 68) brings you Dancing With the Stars. Really.

The element is essential in fiber-optic telecommunication cables, which bring cable television and Internet to your homes and apartments.

According to the US Geological Survey, "fiber-optic cables can transmit signals over long distances because they incorporate periodically spaced lengths of erbium-doped fiber that function as laser amplifiers. Er is used in these laser repeaters, despite its high cost (approximately $700/kg), because it alone possesses the required optical properties."