Whenever a new deposit is discovered, the market hype it up, but the reality is much more grounded—rare earth element reserves are actually distributed widely, and the problem is that their concentrations often don't meet the standards for commercial extraction. The real competitive advantage doesn't lie in prospecting, but in refining. This is the critical bottleneck.

Based on current technological advancements, some countries have already established a solid process foundation in rare earth refining, which has been developed over more than a decade or even longer to create a mature system—from ore pretreatment and separation processes to product purity control, each stage has hard technological deposits. This industrial system advantage can't be achieved through quick leaps in a short period. From another perspective, for latecomers aiming to go from zero to one, the time and technological investment required are astronomical, and they may not even catch up to the existing process standards. Therefore, the key to success in this race isn't in the mines but in laboratories and factories.