Rare earths might be less rare?

Well, I knew that as rare earth metals became more valuable, the concept of recycling them would gain favor. Yes, it has.

A new source of indispensable rare earth metals

And it also turns out that there's a lot of rare earths under the ocean. I believe that the economics of need will drive the necessity of seafloor mining for them -- but first, the amount that can be provided by recycling should be well-estimated. There's no sense in tearing up the sea floor if it's cheaper just to reuse the stuff in the batteries that's already in hand.

Vast reserves of vital rare earths found in ocean bed