U.S. President Donald Trump has been making headlines this week as he spends time in Asia signing trade deals with different nations in many areas, including rare earth minerals.

So what are they? Well, different countries consider different minerals strategically critical, and rare earth minerals are a subset of those critical minerals. There are 17 of them such as scandium and europium.

Rare earths are used in technology, electronics, medical care, and military applications. But they're also very important for the clean energy transition. Electric vehicles, solar photovoltaic panels, and more use rare earth for key parts such as batteries and magnets.

So who has a dominant position in rare earths? China accounts for about 61% of rare earth's production and 92% of processing, a near monopoly the International Energy Agency estimates.

And why are they called rare? Rare earths aren't actually that rare, but they're often found in low concentrations that make them difficult and very expensive to pull from the earth.

China has long dominated in the space because of its supply especially of what are called heavy rare earth and its long-standing investment in both extraction and refining.

That's part of why the U.S. is so dependent on China for its rare earth supply, and why President Trump wants to secure trade deals and supply of the minerals with many other countries.

AP Video by Mike Householder

The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.