"As Evans alluded, the demand for rare earths could lead to their commercial demise. Access to the metals has always been tenuous, leading to worries that one d

"As Evans alluded, the demand for rare earths could lead to their commercial demise. Access to the metals has always been tenuous, leading to worries that one day demand for them may outstrip supply." I understand that starting up a mine takes many years, but if you are not under a command economy where the Bureau of Rare Earths "demands" 1 million tons of Neodymium per year and the mines only produce 1/2 million tons, the use of the word demand does not make any sense to me. I heard demand used in a similar way in the oil industry sometimes and I could never really figure out what they meant or have it explained well.