Interested in Rare Earth and Critical Minerals Stocks? You Might Consider Buying This ETF

There are good reasons to want to invest in critical minerals and rare-earth elements, which are a subset of critical minerals. Demand for these substances -- which are considered vital to the United States' economic and national security interests -- should continue to increase. (There are 50 minerals on the U.S. critical minerals list, and 54 on a draft for an updated list, and there are 17 rare-earth elements.)

These substances are needed in the manufacturing of many high-growth, advanced technologies, including semiconductors, electric vehicles (EVs), and renewable energy, and by the defense industry.

The U.S. does not have a dependable supply chain for these minerals, which are largely mined and processed in China. And China has banned or restricted the export of some of these minerals to the U.S. So, the U.S. government is spending some big bucks to develop a more dependable critical minerals supply chain.

The Trump administration has even bought a stake in several publicly traded U.S. companies it considers essential to the nation's national security. This includes three critical minerals companies -- Lithium Americas, Trilogy Metals, and rare-earth elements company MP Materials (NYSE: MP) -- along with semiconductor maker Intel.

Image source: MP Materials.

Why buy a critical minerals and rare earths ETF over individual stocks?

Mining stocks are particularly risky due to the very high cost and long process of developing and expanding mines. Buying an exchange-traded fund (ETF) can be a less risky way to gain exposure to critical minerals and rare-earth elements relative to buying individual stocks.

That said, another way to use ETFs is to review their holdings to help scout for potentially attractive individual stocks in select industries.

VanEck Rare Earth and Strategic Metals ETF: Overview

VanEck Rare Earth and Strategic Metals ETF (NYSEMKT: REMX), which began trading in 2010, is an index fund designed to track the performance of the MVIS Global Rare Earth/Strategic Metals Index, "which is intended to track the overall performance of companies involved in producing, refining, and recycling of rare earth and strategic metals and minerals."

Companies must derive at least 50% of total revenue from the rare-earth element/strategic metals industry to be added to the Index. The ETF has 29 stock holdings and a net expense ratio of 0.58%, which is reasonable, as of Oct. 23.

VanEck Rare Earth and Strategic Metals ETF: Top 10 stock holdings

Data sources: VanEck Rare Earth and Strategic Metals ETF, Yahoo! Finance, and YCharts. *Gain in Chinese yuan (CNY); stock is neither listed in nor traded over the counter (OTC) in the U.S. TTM = trailing 12 months. YTD = year to date. Data as of Oct. 24, 2025, except for weightings data, which is as of Oct. 23, 2025.

Brief descriptions for the top five holdings:

Lynas Rare Earths (No. 1) mines for rare-earth minerals at its Mt. Weld mine in Australia and produces rare-earth materials at its processing plants in Australia and Malaysia.

Pilbara Minerals (No 2) operates lithium mining operations in Australia and Brazil. It also produces tantalite as a byproduct.

MP Materials (No. 3) operates Mountain Pass in California, the only rare-earth elements mining operation in the U.S. The company produces rare-earth magnets and materials in Texas.

Albemarle (No. 4) is a lithium miner with its primary mining operations in Chile and -- via a joint venture -- Australia. It also operates the only lithium mining operation in the U.S., Silver Peak in Nevada.

Lithium Americas (No. 5) is a pre-commercialization stage company that's developing the Thacker Pass lithium mining operation in Nevada.

Beth McKenna has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Intel. The Motley Fool recommends Lynas Rare Earths Ltd and MP Materials and recommends the following options: short November 2025 $21 puts on Intel. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.