By Daily Crux Contributor Lucy Bottrell:

Rare earth metals, a collection of 17 elements you have probably never heard of, are crucial in manufacturing numerous products like motors for electric cars, low energy light bulbs, BlackBerries, Ipods, and GPS systems.

Lanthanum, cerium, and neodymium, just to name a few, are also used for things like lighting up our cell phones, filtering bacteria from water, and making magnets for disk drives.

China is responsible for mining over 95% of these rare earth minerals, mostly in Inner Mongolia. New mines in the U.S., Australia, and South Africa are years away from being operational.

Now, China is considering a total ban on many rare earth exports, and very tight restrictions on others...

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