The first rare-earth magnets were developed by General Motors in the early 1980s. At the time, geologists and engineers were well aware of the excellent conducting properties of rare earths, which exist practically everywhere on earth but in such small quantities that mining them profitably is difficult to do. General Motors realized that neo magnets kept their charge over a longer period of time than charged steel, an essential part of a car motor that runs for a decade in close contact with other metals and charges.
General Motors' foray into the car engine would prove valuable for lengthening the life span of their products. A collection of NdFeB disc magnets blends the rare neodymium with iron and boron to form the ultra-strong molecular bond. Neodymium retains the magnetic charge, as the density of the metal is more favorable to retaining energy. While a standard iron magnet that would be used for a car door will lose charge in less than a decade (think of how many times you've seen a picture on the refrigerator slowly slide down when it is held up by an old magnet) these neo products tend to outlive their human makers.
The difficulty in creating rare-earths magnets is finding the raw materials themselves. American mining interests had long since ignored the potential for markets with rare-earths, preferring instead to tap already-proven resource nodes ranging from coal to titanium. Not until a global market developed did different nations utilize mass geological surveys to find the richest troves of rare earths possible. Most led to small booms and quick busts, though American currently only supplies around ten percent of the current rare-earths market.
Today, these NdFeB disc magnets are in massive demand. Every laptop or desktop produced has a number of the magnets within their hard drive, while world military organizations are some of the most prominent buyers, using the metal for anything from night-vision goggles to laser scopes. As demand for industrial production grows ever higher, it is possible that rising costs will force more and more mining interests to close unproductive mines and survey for rare earths to meet the consumer hunger for high quality products.