Washington is bracing for a pivotal meeting on October 20, as Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese sits down with US President Donald Trump to talk about a topic quietly reshaping global power.
Rare earth minerals, often overshadowed by oil, gold or other headline-grabbing commodities, are the backbone of modern technology, from electric vehicles and wind turbines to semiconductors and advanced military systems.
And China controls the tap.
Seventy per cent of rare earths are mined in China, and 90 per cent are processed there. This concentration gives Beijing unprecedented leverage over global supply chains.
China's latest move came on October 10, when China added five more metals -- holmium, erbium, thulium, europium and ytterbium, to its export restrictions, bringing the total number of controlled elements to 12, out of 17.
Also Read: Australia pitches to be Trump’s fix for China rare earths curbs
Foreign companies now need approval from China’s Commerce Ministry before buying rare-earth magnets or semiconductors containing even 0.1 per cent of these heavy metals, and must disclose detailed end-use plans.
Australia’s opening
Australia, home to some of the world’s richest deposits of rare earths, sees an opening. With China’s rare earth restrictions in place and the country processing the majority of them domestically, Canberra believes it can be the West’s solution to a growing supply chain vulnerability, Bloomberg reports.
Ahead of the Washington meeting, Australia’s Ambassador Kevin Rudd delivered a clear message to US policymakers: “Australia equals the periodic table,” he said. “Having it is one thing, knowing how to mine it, as mining is a high-tech business, is another, and we have the world’s biggest and best miners.”
Rudd added that, with joint investment from Australia and the US, the country “can meet 30 to 40 of those [critical minerals] without much additional effort, most particularly in terms of processed rare earths.”
The US tracks over 50 minerals considered critical for economic and national security, including 17 rare earths, strategic metals like lithium, cobalt, nickel, manganese and graphite, as well as industrial and specialised metals such as copper, zinc, vanadium, titanium, tellurium, indium and germanium.
This push comes amid mounting concern in Washington. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Fox Business last week: “This is China versus the world. They have pointed a bazooka at the supply chains and the industrial base of the entire free world, and we’re not going to have it.”
Also Read: Australia must deploy 'unconventional' means to deter China, Russia: think tank
Across the Atlantic and in Asia, countries including Canada, India, and EU members are similarly scrambling to secure alternative sources of these strategic materials.
Small elements, enormous impact
The term “rare earth” is kind of misleading. These 17 elements -- 15 lanthanides, plus scandium and yttrium -- are not inherently scarce, in the manner that something like gold is. Rare earths are abundant in the Earth’s crust. What makes them rare is the difficulty of separating and refining them, according to the BBC.
China recognised this decades ago, building an industrial ecosystem capable of extracting, processing, and magnetising these metals at scale. Today, the US sources 80 per cent of its rare earth imports from China; the EU, nearly 98 per cent.
Australia, by contrast, has vast reserves but only a fraction of China’s processing capacity. Its deposits include neodymium, dysprosium and terbium, essential for high-strength magnets used in wind turbines and defence systems. The US Geological Survey estimates Australia’s critical mineral reserves at roughly one-seventh the size of China’s.
However, companies like Lynas Rare Earths Ltd. are making headway. Its Kalgoorlie facility and a refining plant in Malaysia recently became the first outside China to separate heavy rare-earth elements like dysprosium and terbium.
In October, US firm Noveon Magnetics partnered with Lynas to supply magnets to US defense contractors, sending Lynas’s share price to a 14-year high, according to Al Jazeera.
The Australian government is also stepping in. Ahead of May’s parliamentary elections, Prime Minister Albanese announced a A$1.2 billion ($750 million) critical minerals reserve to boost domestic processing.
Meanwhile, Iluka Resources is developing the Eneabba project in Western Australia, designed to come online by 2027 and targeting rare-earth oxides such as dysprosium and terbium for high-tech magnets. Over the years, Iluka has stockpiled more than $650 million worth of rare earths, but refining remains the bottleneck.
Iluka CEO Tom O’Leary told shareholders last month that “the current industry is unsustainable, owing to China’s monopoly position and approach. It is a fact that rare earths are among very few metals where China has demonstrated a preparedness to withhold supply to achieve political or strategic objectives.”
“They’re chemically very similar, so separating them requires a huge number of stages,” Jacques Eksteen, chair of extractive metallurgy at Curtin University, told the BBC. “You also have residues and wastes to deal with, which is problematic. They often produce radioactive materials. It comes at a cost.”
To address this, the Australian government is loaning Iluka A$1.65 billion to build a refinery. As Iluka’s McGrath puts it: “Without the strategic partnership we have with the Australian government, a rare earths project would not be economically viable. We expect to be able to supply a significant proportion of Western demand by 2030. Our customers recognise that having an independent, secure, and sustainable supply chain outside of China is fundamental for the continuity of their business.”
China’s grip
China’s dominance is no accident. The 2010 embargo against Japan, triggered by a territorial dispute over a detained Chinese fishing captain, disrupted global supply chains. Japanese executives appeared on national television, warning that their industries were running out of critical raw materials.
The embargo lasted seven weeks, after which Beijing consolidated its mining sector under the state-controlled China Rare Earth Group, reported the New York Times.
Japan responded by diversifying its sources, investing in Australia, including support for Lynas Rare Earths Ltd., which now mines and refines about 60 per cent of Japan’s light rare earths and supplements heavy rare earths from Malaysia.
Following the embargo, Hitachi Metals, renamed Proterial in 2023, established a rare-earth magnet factory in North Carolina in response to concerns from the Obama administration. The facility, operating from 2011 to 2013 with a few dozen employees, faced higher costs compared with China’s massive complexes in Ganzhou.
American companies were unwilling to pay the premium, and Hitachi ultimately shut the factory in 2020, placing its equipment into storage, NYT observes.
Today, the Mountain Pass mine in California remains the only active rare-earth mine in the US. Its operator, MP Materials, plans to scale up magnet production at a new Texas facility by year-end, but even at full capacity, output will match just a single day of China’s production.
The United States, once a leader in rare-earth mining, has struggled to maintain its position. Mountain Pass, which supplied much of the world’s rare earths from 1965 to 1995, closed in 2002 partly due to strict environmental rules.
Mining resumed in 2017, but most ore still goes to China for low-cost processing. Domestic refining is only beginning, and regulatory hurdles remain a major challenge: opening a new rare-earth mine in the US can take decades.
Mark Smith, CEO of NioCorp Developments, which has permits for a Nebraska project, noted, “You can spend a whole career getting a mine up and running.” By contrast, Chinese mines can launch rapidly, bypassing extensive zoning and environmental approvals, while China has also built a network of talent and research, giving it a lasting technological edge in processing.
Export controls now require foreign buyers to obtain special approvals from China’s Commerce Ministry, covering both rare-earth metals and specialised refining equipment, with some measures taking effect from December 1.
The stakes
Australia’s effort to leverage its rare earths comes at a delicate moment. While it seeks closer ties with Washington, including discussions on the Aukus security pact and potential US investment in mining projects, it also relies heavily on China for exports, from iron ore to coal.
“We know that American companies desperately need critical minerals, and Australia is very well placed to service that need,” Treasurer Jim Chalmers told reporters in Washington, adding that Canberra aims to maintain stable economic relations with Beijing, reported Reuters.
What this meeting represents is more than a trade negotiation; it is a pivot in global strategic and industrial balance. Australia can supply the West with critical minerals, but only if it overcomes processing challenges, attracts foreign investment and secures a stable political environment.
China, meanwhile, is leveraging its near-monopoly to project power and influence trade talks, echoing lessons from 2010.
Rare earth minerals, often overshadowed by oil, gold or other headline-grabbing commodities, are the backbone of modern technology, from electric vehicles and wind turbines to semiconductors and advanced military systems.
And China controls the tap.
Seventy per cent of rare earths are mined in China, and 90 per cent are processed there. This concentration gives Beijing unprecedented leverage over global supply chains.
China's latest move came on October 10, when China added five more metals -- holmium, erbium, thulium, europium and ytterbium, to its export restrictions, bringing the total number of controlled elements to 12, out of 17.
Also Read: Australia pitches to be Trump’s fix for China rare earths curbs
Foreign companies now need approval from China’s Commerce Ministry before buying rare-earth magnets or semiconductors containing even 0.1 per cent of these heavy metals, and must disclose detailed end-use plans.
Australia’s opening
Australia, home to some of the world’s richest deposits of rare earths, sees an opening. With China’s rare earth restrictions in place and the country processing the majority of them domestically, Canberra believes it can be the West’s solution to a growing supply chain vulnerability, Bloomberg reports.
Ahead of the Washington meeting, Australia’s Ambassador Kevin Rudd delivered a clear message to US policymakers: “Australia equals the periodic table,” he said. “Having it is one thing, knowing how to mine it, as mining is a high-tech business, is another, and we have the world’s biggest and best miners.”
Rudd added that, with joint investment from Australia and the US, the country “can meet 30 to 40 of those [critical minerals] without much additional effort, most particularly in terms of processed rare earths.”
The US tracks over 50 minerals considered critical for economic and national security, including 17 rare earths, strategic metals like lithium, cobalt, nickel, manganese and graphite, as well as industrial and specialised metals such as copper, zinc, vanadium, titanium, tellurium, indium and germanium.
This push comes amid mounting concern in Washington. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Fox Business last week: “This is China versus the world. They have pointed a bazooka at the supply chains and the industrial base of the entire free world, and we’re not going to have it.”
Also Read: Australia must deploy 'unconventional' means to deter China, Russia: think tank
Across the Atlantic and in Asia, countries including Canada, India, and EU members are similarly scrambling to secure alternative sources of these strategic materials.
Small elements, enormous impact
The term “rare earth” is kind of misleading. These 17 elements -- 15 lanthanides, plus scandium and yttrium -- are not inherently scarce, in the manner that something like gold is. Rare earths are abundant in the Earth’s crust. What makes them rare is the difficulty of separating and refining them, according to the BBC.
China recognised this decades ago, building an industrial ecosystem capable of extracting, processing, and magnetising these metals at scale. Today, the US sources 80 per cent of its rare earth imports from China; the EU, nearly 98 per cent.
Australia, by contrast, has vast reserves but only a fraction of China’s processing capacity. Its deposits include neodymium, dysprosium and terbium, essential for high-strength magnets used in wind turbines and defence systems. The US Geological Survey estimates Australia’s critical mineral reserves at roughly one-seventh the size of China’s.
However, companies like Lynas Rare Earths Ltd. are making headway. Its Kalgoorlie facility and a refining plant in Malaysia recently became the first outside China to separate heavy rare-earth elements like dysprosium and terbium.
In October, US firm Noveon Magnetics partnered with Lynas to supply magnets to US defense contractors, sending Lynas’s share price to a 14-year high, according to Al Jazeera.
The Australian government is also stepping in. Ahead of May’s parliamentary elections, Prime Minister Albanese announced a A$1.2 billion ($750 million) critical minerals reserve to boost domestic processing.
Meanwhile, Iluka Resources is developing the Eneabba project in Western Australia, designed to come online by 2027 and targeting rare-earth oxides such as dysprosium and terbium for high-tech magnets. Over the years, Iluka has stockpiled more than $650 million worth of rare earths, but refining remains the bottleneck.
Iluka CEO Tom O’Leary told shareholders last month that “the current industry is unsustainable, owing to China’s monopoly position and approach. It is a fact that rare earths are among very few metals where China has demonstrated a preparedness to withhold supply to achieve political or strategic objectives.”
“They’re chemically very similar, so separating them requires a huge number of stages,” Jacques Eksteen, chair of extractive metallurgy at Curtin University, told the BBC. “You also have residues and wastes to deal with, which is problematic. They often produce radioactive materials. It comes at a cost.”
To address this, the Australian government is loaning Iluka A$1.65 billion to build a refinery. As Iluka’s McGrath puts it: “Without the strategic partnership we have with the Australian government, a rare earths project would not be economically viable. We expect to be able to supply a significant proportion of Western demand by 2030. Our customers recognise that having an independent, secure, and sustainable supply chain outside of China is fundamental for the continuity of their business.”
China’s grip
China’s dominance is no accident. The 2010 embargo against Japan, triggered by a territorial dispute over a detained Chinese fishing captain, disrupted global supply chains. Japanese executives appeared on national television, warning that their industries were running out of critical raw materials.
The embargo lasted seven weeks, after which Beijing consolidated its mining sector under the state-controlled China Rare Earth Group, reported the New York Times.
Japan responded by diversifying its sources, investing in Australia, including support for Lynas Rare Earths Ltd., which now mines and refines about 60 per cent of Japan’s light rare earths and supplements heavy rare earths from Malaysia.
Following the embargo, Hitachi Metals, renamed Proterial in 2023, established a rare-earth magnet factory in North Carolina in response to concerns from the Obama administration. The facility, operating from 2011 to 2013 with a few dozen employees, faced higher costs compared with China’s massive complexes in Ganzhou.
American companies were unwilling to pay the premium, and Hitachi ultimately shut the factory in 2020, placing its equipment into storage, NYT observes.
Today, the Mountain Pass mine in California remains the only active rare-earth mine in the US. Its operator, MP Materials, plans to scale up magnet production at a new Texas facility by year-end, but even at full capacity, output will match just a single day of China’s production.
The United States, once a leader in rare-earth mining, has struggled to maintain its position. Mountain Pass, which supplied much of the world’s rare earths from 1965 to 1995, closed in 2002 partly due to strict environmental rules.
Mining resumed in 2017, but most ore still goes to China for low-cost processing. Domestic refining is only beginning, and regulatory hurdles remain a major challenge: opening a new rare-earth mine in the US can take decades.
Mark Smith, CEO of NioCorp Developments, which has permits for a Nebraska project, noted, “You can spend a whole career getting a mine up and running.” By contrast, Chinese mines can launch rapidly, bypassing extensive zoning and environmental approvals, while China has also built a network of talent and research, giving it a lasting technological edge in processing.
Export controls now require foreign buyers to obtain special approvals from China’s Commerce Ministry, covering both rare-earth metals and specialised refining equipment, with some measures taking effect from December 1.
The stakes
Australia’s effort to leverage its rare earths comes at a delicate moment. While it seeks closer ties with Washington, including discussions on the Aukus security pact and potential US investment in mining projects, it also relies heavily on China for exports, from iron ore to coal.
“We know that American companies desperately need critical minerals, and Australia is very well placed to service that need,” Treasurer Jim Chalmers told reporters in Washington, adding that Canberra aims to maintain stable economic relations with Beijing, reported Reuters.
What this meeting represents is more than a trade negotiation; it is a pivot in global strategic and industrial balance. Australia can supply the West with critical minerals, but only if it overcomes processing challenges, attracts foreign investment and secures a stable political environment.
China, meanwhile, is leveraging its near-monopoly to project power and influence trade talks, echoing lessons from 2010.
You may also like
Could I survive the night in Britain's most haunted castle?
Ukraine wipes out Russian sabotage group in brutal revenge attack for civilian killings
Fears new Islamophobia definition could be used to water down terrorism laws
Much-loved charity shop announces exact date it will close in historic UK city
Arsenal make Diego Simeone security decision after Liverpool fan incident
