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The rare earth elements (REE) are essential for the high-tech and green technology industries, and used, for example, in computers, smartphones, and wind turbines. The REE are considered critical minerals and can be highly enriched in certain magmatic-hydrothermal systems including alkaline complexes and carbonatites. Almost all of the critical mineral deposits show a complex overprint by hydrothermal processes during their genesis. However, our understanding of the mobility in these ore- forming systems and our knowledge about the stability of REE minerals is still very limited. The MINES thermodynamic database is an open-access database and continuously updated with the most up to date thermodynamic data for REE aqueous species and minerals. This database also includes rock-forming minerals and permits simulating the mineralogy and alteration geochemistry that relates to the formation of these critical mineral deposits. This study gives a short overview of the MINES thermodynamic database and the GEMS code package for simulating the formation of hydrothermal calcite, fluorite and bastnäsite-(Ce) veins relevant to interpreting critical mineral deposits.