Mining Rare Earth Elements on the Moon Is No Longer Pure Science Fiction

Since the late 1990s, China has supplied the vast majority of the world's refined rare earth elements (REEs) — scarce metals that modern economies depend on. As demand grows, the search for deposits has reached unusual places, including the Moon. A USGS fact sheet sets out what we know: where lunar REEs are, how rich they might be, and why mining them is now a serious idea.

What rare earths are for

Seventeen elements usually count as REEs: the lanthanides, near the bottom of the periodic table, plus scandium and yttrium. Added to materials, they make magnets stronger, camera lenses clearer, lights brighter, batteries last longer and screens more vibrant. They matter to industry and medicine, and they are necessary for defense systems.

KREEP: the Moon's rare earth rocks

The Moon's surface has been pounded by meteorites for billions of years, leaving a layer of crushed rock and dust called regolith. Samples brought back by Apollo astronauts show that most rocks at their landing sites are low in REEs. But detailed analysis turned up small fragments that are rich in them — and also in potassium (K) and phosphorus (P). Hence the name: KREEP.

KREEP basalt, Sample 15386, the largest fragment of KREEP taken from the lunar regolith. Photo: NASA.

Those fragments could have come from almost anywhere, because the same impacts that made the regolith flung material across the surface. Finding the mounds or layers they came from took instruments in orbit, using two independent methods:

Harrison Schmitt, a former USGS employee and NASA astronaut, collecting regolith samples with a lunar rake on December 11, 1972, during Apollo 17. Photo: Eugene Cernan, NASA (AS17-134-20425).

1. Neutron spectrometers combined with numerical models estimate REE concentrations (Elphic and others, 2000).
2. Gamma-ray spectrometers map thorium (Th), which behaves chemically like REEs, collects in KREEP, and is radioactive and abundant enough to be mapped from orbit.

The two methods produce similar maps, which gives scientists confidence they know where REE-rich rocks lie.

Thorium on the Moon's near side lies mostly in a ring around the Imbrium basin, a region of roughly 2 million square miles, about 16 percent of the Moon's surface. Colors run from about 100 to 500 times the Solar System average. Map: U.S. Geological Survey.

How rich might the deposits be?

To judge richness, geologists compare a rock with chondrites — meteorites that preserve the bulk composition of material present when the Solar System formed, a "Solar System average".

Rare earth elements relative to the Solar System average: the range in ores mined on Earth (green), the highest levels inferred from orbital data (orange), and KREEP as estimated from Apollo samples (red). Chart: U.S. Geological Survey.

Could we mine it?

The technology does not exist yet, but the engineering challenge is relatively modest compared with other space resources. Robotic excavators that move loose lunar rock efficiently have been developed, and vehicles to carry many tons between Earth and Moon are being built. There is no obvious technical reason it could not be done in the coming years.

The hurdle is economics. Lunar REEs would need to compete on price with REEs mined on Earth. That could happen if REE prices rise or if lunar infrastructure cuts transport costs — and since both are plausible, the idea is no longer pure science fiction.

What's next

No one has yet explored the Moon's richest REE features directly. NASA has prioritised some KREEP-rich sites for exploration, including the Aristarchus plateau, with its wide variety of volcanic features. The Gruithuisen domes are the target of NASA's Lunar Vulkan Imaging and Spectroscopy Explorer (Lunar-VISE), planned for delivery in 2028, whose instruments will study the chemistry, minerals and surface of the soil and rocks in high resolution — all essential for REE prospecting.

Sources

Based on "Rare earth elements on the Moon," U.S. Geological Survey Fact Sheet 2025–3049; a work of the United States government in the public domain. Its photographs, map and chart are reproduced from the fact sheet.