A rare earth metal comprising just 1% to 8% of the permanent magnets powering electric cars and wind turbines is responsible for up to 78% of their environmental impact. This stark finding comes from research by environmental scientists Stellina Samuel, Robert Istrate, and René Kleijn, published in the journal Sustainable Production and Consumption—and it reveals a hidden vulnerability in the technologies meant to drive the global energy transition.
Dysprosium, the metal in question, is essential to modern magnet performance. It strengthens permanent magnets and, crucially, prevents them from losing their magnetic power at the high temperatures generated by electric motors. Yet this tiny ingredient carries an outsized burden. In magnets containing 4% dysprosium, the metal accounts for as much as 44% of the raw material cost while driving nearly four-fifths of the overall environmental damage across the entire product lifecycle—from extraction through processing to final manufacture.
The damage begins in the mines. Most dysprosium extraction occurs in Myanmar and southern China through a method called in-situ leaching, where companies inject chemicals into mountains to dissolve rare earth metals. Satellite imagery reveals the scale of the landscape transformation: holes drilled, chemicals poured, solutions collected. The chemicals used in this process can leak into surrounding environments, creating consequences that extend far beyond the mining site. After extraction comes an equally intensive stage: separating dysprosium from chemically similar elements requires massive amounts of additional chemicals and energy. Because dysprosium is a heavier rare earth metal, isolation is particularly difficult and resource-intensive.
This concentration of impact in a single, nearly invisible ingredient points to where real gains are possible. Samuel and her colleagues argue that the biggest opportunities lie not in controlling mines thousands of miles away but in using less dysprosium altogether. Redesigning magnets with new technologies or engineering approaches that maintain magnetic performance while requiring smaller amounts of the metal could simultaneously reduce environmental harm and costs. "Critical raw materials are a bit like spices in a meal," René Kleijn explains. "You only need a small amount, but they have a huge influence on the final result."
The research speaks to a broader shift within industry as manufacturers recognize that reducing reliance on critical materials offers multiple advantages. Lower dysprosium use means reduced environmental and financial costs, yes, but it also decreases dependency on geopolitical vulnerabilities. Supply chains dependent on rare earths extracted in Myanmar and southern China remain exposed to export restrictions and other political pressures. Traceability is difficult, leaving manufacturers and consumers alike uncertain about the origins and true social costs of the materials flowing through their products.
Yet one dimension remains largely unmeasured and underexamined: the human cost. Samuel notes that the social consequences of extracting critical raw materials have received far less attention than environmental impacts, partly because such effects are harder to quantify and often remain localized and poorly documented. These extraction sites, invisible to most consumers and policymakers in Europe and beyond, raise fundamental questions about responsibility and accountability within global supply chains.
The findings suggest that the path to a truly sustainable energy transition requires looking beyond where power is generated and examining every ingredient that makes that power possible—even those present in nearly invisible amounts.