Rare earth magnets are usually neodymium-Iron-boron (NIB), neodynium being a rare earth element. Most maybe all of the rare earths are ferromagnetic - like iron. The NIB magnets are very strong magnets compared to other materials. They are the strrongest commercially availabe magnets and very brittle. It is very easy to break or chip them.
The story Bonneyman mentions I am not familiar with but the magnets are strong enough it's true if they swallowed more than one unless they were all swallowed in one go.
Rare earth magnets are almost always plated because neodynium is similar to iron in as it tarnished or rusts - usually nickel-coppper-nickel plated but depending on the application and how deep the buyers pockets are other metals used including gold.
Here are a couple stuck to hand one on the palm and one on the back.
You can see the two magnets are broken - that was just from smacking together when I put them back in the stack.