The plant is finally operating, but prices for some rare-earth elements are now 80% off their peaks.

WSJ: Mining Firm, Ex-Teacher Battle Over Rare Earths

The two superpowers are competing over a valuable new resource -- the rare earth elements used in the construction of nearly all smartphones, tablets and other electronic gadgets.

CNN: The future world of 'Call of Duty: Black Ops II'

Metals, platinum-group elements, rare earth elements, and other volatiles, like H, H2O, and carbon compounds, are abundant on asteroids, many of which are relatively accessible from Earth.

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In doing due diligence on Molycorp, Bhappu learned that many consumers of rare earth elements desperately wanted a Western-supply source.

FORBES: The Money Man Behind America's Rare Earth Minerals

This week's ruling applies to materials like bauxite, coke, magnesium, manganese and zinc, but, most notably, does not apply to rare earths -- a group of 17 elements critical to the production of tablets, smartphones and myriad other gadgets.

ENGADGET: WTO ruling revives debate over China's rare earths trade

But the Moon is a source of rare earth elements, as well as Helium-3, a possible future fuel for nuclear fusion reactors (if we ever actually invent them).

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Rocks laid down at the time - some 65.5 million years ago - show a thin layer abundant in rare elements like Iridium, spherules and shocked Quartz that could only have come from a meteorite impact.

BBC: Closing the 'three metre gap'

Rare earths are 17 chemically similar elements crucial to making many hi-tech products, such as phones and PCs.

BBC: US to build $120m rare earth research institute

Rare earth minerals are often mixed with radioactive elements, and processing creates low-level radioactive waste.

FORBES: The Politics of Rare Earth

Information provided by Metal Pages, a news site that focuses on non-ferrous metals, ferro alloys and rare earths, indicated that rare earth elements exports have dropped 65% in 2011 and that China has only exported 11, 000 metric tons of rare earths through the first three quarters of the year.

FORBES: 2012 Outlook: Uncertainty Continues For Rare Earths Prices, China Still Major Player

Layer in elements of Second Life, Farmville, and a dash of the Las Vegas strip (the rare family-friendly side, anyway) and you have Chumba World.

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