The 21st century’s ‘black gold’, rare earths are a group of 17 metals (scandium, yttrium and the 15 lanthanides) that share certain properties. Mined since the 1940s, they have become strategically important minerals vital to the manufacture of high...

With over 2,900 individual reefs and 900 islands stretching over 2,600km and a surface area of nearly 348,000km2, Australia’s Great Barrier Reef off Queensland is the largest coral reef and the largest biogenic structure (created by living...