An REE called lanthanum helps ensure that the iPhone’s screen has vibrant colours, and neodymium and dysprosium are attributed with making the phone vibrate among other things. However, experts warn that as the globe shifts to a greener economy, a shortage of the essential metals needed to produce your cellphones and other electronic items is possible. Despite the fact that these elements are present in a wide variety of electronic items, researchers have raised the alarm about how cellphones are contributing to the depletion of certain elements. The unsustainable use of seven elements in cellphones (carbon, yttrium, gallium, arsenic, silver, indium, and tantalum) will represent a major threat of depletion in the next 100 years, according to a statement from the European Chemical Society from 2022. Rare earth elements have names like dysprosium, neodymium, and praseodymium, so they’re not exactly well-known. Tesla and iphone makers use precious metal in their products which makes their products worthwhile. REEs make up only a small portion of the mass in smartphones, yet rare earths mining is a big and lucrative worldwide business. This is due in part to the global prevalence of high-tech devices such as cellphones, which rely on the minerals’ conductive and magnetic qualities to work at their best. While REEs are vital to smartphone manufacturers’ existence, their influence extends far beyond the borders of tech hotspots like San Francisco, South Korea, and mainland China.
