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Letter: How to solve the rare-earth mineral problem

Published 17 September 2025

From John Kitchen, Kettering, Northamptonshire, UK

Almost all of the problems with the mining of minerals vital to renewable technologies like electric cars can be solved by newer technologies: zero-rare-earth magnets, zero-rare-earth electric motors, zero-lithium supercapacitors(23 August, p 36).

The only remaining requirement will be copper. It is even possible that a form of carbon could replace copper in many applications.

Issue no. 3561 published 20 September 2025

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