Strategic minerals are those that are important for both a nation's socioeconomic development and strengthening its defenses.
Strategic minerals are those required to meet a country's military, industrial, and basic needs during times of crisis. Typically, these minerals are imported from nations with an abundance of them when domestic production cannot meet demand.
The earth's crust contains many rare earth minerals, which are not particularly rare. The reason why these metals are referred to as rare is that it is challenging to extract the metals from the ore. Rarely do rare earth metals exist pure. It is exceedingly expensive to mine for rare earth metals.
The Earth's crust's rarest naturally occurring element is Astatine. The chemical element astatine has the atomic number 85 and is represented by the symbol At.
Because they serve as the foundation for many modern technologies and are crucial to both economic growth and national security, rare elements are referred to as strategic minerals.
Hence, rare elements are regarded as strategic minerals.
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