We live in a world that is increasingly dominated by science and technology, but journalists seem to think it is beneath them to learn anything concerning the subjects they are writing about.

I did some web searching on the author of this article, George Dvorsky, and couldn't find any scientific qualifications other than "bioethicist".

>Space is the place, as Sun Ra famously said, and it most certainly has plenty to offer, including rare-earth metals like platinum, gold, iridium, palladium, and osmium, among other minerals.

According to the Wikipedia article on rare-earth elements, and this article in Tech Metals Research, none of those metals are rare-earth elements.