Rare Earth minerals? Today's batteries are wonders of using cheap, easily available "junk". Lithium the ingredient so important and prevalent it's in the name (

Rare Earth minerals? Today's batteries are wonders of using cheap, easily available "junk". Lithium the ingredient so important and prevalent it's in the name (Lithium-Ion batteries) is the third element on the Periodic table and per-boring chemistry reasons assuredly also the third most common in the universe since the big bang. Nickel is so common we named one of the most boring and cheapest units of US currency after it. Cobalt was a pretty/shiny "waste product" of Nickel and other mining, with a long history of being used for pretty blue paint. None of those things are "rare earth minerals" by almost any definition and are relatively plentiful. Definitely none of them are in the zone on the Periodic table specifically named the "rare earth metals" either (though those are often important in magnetic machines like MRI scanners, so maybe you are confused about what part of the electromagnetic field batteries are typically working with?).