[ajmurmann]

> The result is that its natural resources haven’t been consumed to the degree that most developed countries’ resources have, and there aren’t as many people to consume them.

I find this a strange train of thought in this context of rare metals like this. Did other countries truly discover their Neodymium reserves decades or centuries ago and exhaust them back then or did they never have them in the first place?

[Loughla]

I'm with you. What were people in the early 1900's using rare earth metals for that they would be used up by now?

[adrian_b]

The first large-scale use of the rare-earth metals was since the last decade of the 19th century in gas lamps with high brightness, which were used especially for street lighting in Europe, until they were replaced by electric lamps.

The next large-scale use appeared soon after the start of the 20th century, in the portable lighters, which are still used today.