You may never have heard of Rare Earth Metals but the simple truth is you probably aren’t willing to live without them. They are the backbone of devices we use on a daily basis. These amazing little known elements are what make our smart phones smart, laptop computers purr and flat screen TVs flat. The same goes for electric cars, wind turbines, solar cells. Rare Earth Metals are essential ingredients for the digital and green technologies of the future. But they aren’t as green as everybody thinks. The process for getting them out of the ground and into our modern tools and playthings means pollution, radioactivity, and destroyed landscapes. Despite the significant environmental issues, there’s a modern-day ‘gold-rush’ on around the world to find new deposits. The are no known substitutes. Meanwhile, scientists around the world are feverishly looking for better ways to mine and process rare earths, recycle them intelligently – or replace them completely in a global effort to avoid a tsunami of long lasting pollution in the future.