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very similar, yeah, except that the most abundant rare earth metal is cerium, which is 20 times less common than phosphorus. also prc did try to corner the market on rare earth metals about 15 years ago, causing a huge price spike, which has never happened with phosphate and probably never will. see https://pubs.usgs.gov/periodicals/mcs2023/mcs2023-phosphate.... https://www.usgs.gov/centers/national-minerals-information-c...

even though rare earth metals are much less abundant than phosphorus, they still aren't rare. elements rarer than cerium include copper, nitrogen, lead, tin, tungsten, and fortunately arsenic



> elements rarer than cerium include copper, nitrogen, lead, tin, tungsten

rarer in the sense of % on (in) earth, or % in the crust? I would have thought nitrogen requiring no mining would make it easier to obtain, even if technically rare?


Nitrogen is not common in the Earth, but is highly enriched in the atmosphere.

Similarly, uranium is orders of magnitude more abundant in the continental crust than it is in the rest of the Earth.




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