Inside the battle to control the world's supply of rare earths

New York Post

9 hours ago

Back in 2009, Jim Kennedy, a consultant and entrepreneur of rare earths — a group of 17 metallic elements, including 15 lanthanides, crucial for modern technology — met with a top official at the Pentagon to discuss the future of these precious minerals.
'He was almost indifferent to the issue,' Kennedy tells The Post. 'His dispassion was staggering. It was one of the most disappointing meetings in my life.'
Sixteen years later, that indifference has widely disappeared. Rare earths — used for everything from smartphones, electric cars and airplane engines to medical equipment, wind turbines and military applications like missiles and fighter jets — have become one of the most in-demand and politically contested industries in the world.
10 A miner carrying a heavy bag of rare earth-filled mud in China, which controls many of the most crucial rare earth elements now required for the sophisticated technology that powers everything from cellphones to fighter jets.
REUTERS
Rare earths 'enjoy an unusual level of bipartisan political support because they are vital both to economic development and national security,' says Melissa Sanderson, a former president and current board director at American Rare Earths, an Australian company focused on developing rare earth projects, including one in Wyoming.
Rare earths aren't just a big part of modern technology; they're in many ways the most critical components. They're used as heat-absorbing agents in wind turbine motors, as strengthening and anti-glare agents in iPhones and fighter jets and as clarifying agents in MRIs.
They're also almost completely controlled by China. Between 2020 and 2023, 70% of our rare earth imports came from China, according to Statista. That number jumped to 80% last year.
And the US is 100% reliant on China imports of Yttrium, a rare earth metal used in everything from cellphones to TVs to radiation therapy used to treat liver cancer.
10 Rare earths 'enjoy an unusual level of bipartisan political support because they are vital both to economic development and national security,' says Melissa Sanderson, a former president and current board director at American Rare Earths.
China has been fickle about granting export licenses for rare earths, although their grip has shown recent signs of weakening. President Trump had a lengthy (and rare) phone call with Chinese President Xi Jinping on June 5 and in a social media post after the call, Trump wrote 'there should no longer be any questions respecting the complexity of Rare Earth products.' The next day, China granted temporary export licenses to rare-earth suppliers of the top three US automakers.
The irony is that for much of the mid-20th century, the US was a global leader of rare earth elements. But 'demand was exponentially lower at the time,' says Sanderson. 'Therefore, the output from our sole producer — Mountain Pass Materials, known as MP Materials now — was sufficient to satisfy a large percentage of then-existing demand.' The Las Vegas-Nevada-based company still operates the only rare earth mine and processing facility in the United States.
10 President Trump and President Zelensky meet in the Oval Office in February. Soon after this meeting a deal was made for Ukraine to supply vital rare earths to the United States.
AFP via Getty Images
America's rare earths lead came to an end in 1980, brought on by changes to US regulations.
Because processing rare earth minerals involves the separation and removal of uranium and thorium, it can lead to radioactive waste and other contaminants.
'The US was concerned about the environmental impact, since particularly with the technology of the time, there were significant impacts to air, water and even ground quality that would not have met US standards,' says Sanderson.
It wasn't the same story in China, who were more willing to accept the dangerous pollutants 'as a price for achieving its market dominance,' she says.
China's monopoly of rare earths doesn't just give them an economic advantage. 'China has been 'weaponizing' its market hegemony for many years, in increasingly sophisticated and legal ways,' says Sanderson.
10 Pres. Trump with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. Having conceded its lead on rare earth mining, the US is playing a serious game of catch-up with the Chinese.
REUTERS
The country first flexed their power in 2010, blocking rare earth exports to Japan, a major producer of permanent metal magnets.
'That decision was overturned by the World Trade Organization, so China does not exert its control as overtly now,' says Sanderson. But in the current trade tussle with the US, 'China has identified seven crucial elements under its export control regime which it will not sell to the US,' says Sanderson. 'Due to concerns that while suitable for civilian economic use, they could also be used for military purposes.'
While President Trump's tariffs are often blamed for exacerbating the tensions, Kennedy, who serves as president of ThREE Consulting, a rare earths consultancy, says the tariffs are actually 'forcing China to reveal the magnitude of this threat. Absent Trump's tariffs, China would never have shown its hand until it was too late.'
10 The US is 100% reliant on China imports of Yttrium, a rare earth metal used in everything from cellphones to TVs to radiation therapy used to treat liver cancer.
REUTERS
Just how bad could it get? Kennedy believes that if left unchecked, and China was allowed to continue their embargo without consequences, 'the non-Chinese world would need to shut down and re-engineer most everything that comes off an assembly line,' says Kennedy. 'This is not an overstatement.'
The stand-off with China may be at the forefront, but it's not the only way Trump is maneuvering to protect the nation from rare earth depletion. Greenland contains (by some estimates) about a quarter of the world's rare earth minerals, and Trump has suggested that the US could annex the autonomous territory in Denmark.
10 A chunk of Ytrium, once of the most important rare earth elements.
Phil Degginger/imageBROKER/Shutterstock
The US also recently inked a landmark deal with Ukraine, which has approximately 5% of the total global mineral reserves. Although Trump declared in February that Ukraine would be providing 'the equivalent of like $500 billion worth of rare earth [minerals],' the exact amount wasn't specified in the deal, other than that the US and Ukraine would be splitting profits 50/50.
There have also been efforts to mine rare earths from an entirely new source — the bottom of the Pacific Ocean.
10 Consultant Jim Kennedy was one of the first industry insiders to raise the alarm around the rarity — and potential global conflict — surrounding rare earths.
threeconsulting.com
It's called the 'Clarion Clipperton Zone,' a remote area of the Pacific between Hawaii and Mexico, roughly half the size of the contiguous US. This seabed region is rich in polymetallic nodules, the rock-like formations that contain some of the most sought-after rare earths in the world. It's a veritable goldmine waiting to be unearthed.
In fact, the US Geological Survey recently estimated that the Clarion Clipperton Zone contains more nickel, cobalt and manganese than all terrestrial reserves combined.
The Metals Company, a Canadian firm with US investment ties, is already making strides to become the first to mine commercially in the region. They conducted a field test back in 2022, and the company is currently applying for 'exploration licenses and commercial recovery permits' from the US.
There are legal hurdles that could slow down their ambitions. Despite a 1980 law passed by Congress to regulate seabed mining, the Clarion Clipperton Zone technically falls under the jurisdiction of the International Seabed Authority, which operates under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. Whether the ISA has exclusive authority over the region remains open to debate.
10 Gerard Barron, CEO of The Metals Company, has dismissed some of the concerns about potential environmental damage surrounding rare earth mining efforts.
AFP via Getty Images
There are also environmental concerns. Arlo Hemphill, a Senior Oceans Campaigner at Greenpeace, warns that any move to mine the Pacific 'would be an ecological disaster. Scientists have not even had a chance to fully explore and understand the wonders of the deep, but a greedy corporation wants to tear up this ecosystem and cause immense ecological damage.'
Gerard Barron, CEO of The Metals Company, dismisses these concerns, pointing out during a recent interview that Indonesia regularly mines in biodiverse rainforest regions.
'For some reason,' he said during the interview, 'people think it's okay to go digging up rainforests to get the metals underneath them, yet we're debating whether we should be going to pick up these rocks that sit on the abyssal plain?' (Barron did not respond to the Post's request for comment.)
There are other options, but many are just as controversial. Sanderson believes the key will come down to strengthening our relationship with allies like Canada and Australia.
'They have significant natural resources and experienced and large mining companies,' she says. 'Cooperation with these countries is vital for filling the knowledge gap. The US doesn't have nearly enough experienced chemical and process engineers, as just one example.'
10 Rare earths are also crucial components of military fighter jets.
Soonthorn – stock.adobe.com
It took half a century for China to achieve its market position, she says, and the US needs an integrated supply chain from mine to magnet, but we're essentially starting from scratch.
The US also needs to reform its mining regulatory system, which has a dysfunctional permitting process and some of the longest lead times for new mine production in the world.
'On average, companies wait anywhere from eight to fifteen years from when a deposit is initially determined to be economically interesting to when production can start,' says Sanderson, 'and some have waited significantly longer than that.'
New mining projects are also frequently litigated, 'multiple times from multiple angles,' says Sanderson, which can add even more years to the wait time. With the return on investment horizon so long and the prospects so uncertain, many companies 'have difficulty attracting the investment necessary to support the high costs of building a mine,' she says.
10 Miners of rare earths such as these in China are increasingly at the forefront of the global race to control many of the elements that will determine our technological future.
REUTERS
Kennedy, however, is hopeful for the future. His company, Caldera Holding LLC, is collaborating with federal labs to refashion a former iron ore mine in Missouri to focus on rare earth minerals. He believes his mine is the only one that can provide 'geopolitically significant quantities' of rare earths.'
But the ball, says Kennedy, is very much in Trump's court. His trade war has caused uncertainty, but the president's actions 'strongly suggest that delinking from China is real. This can be helpful, but follow-through is critical.'
It's now up to the Trump administration to provide low-cost loans, grants and production tax credits to US-based mining companies that have (at least until now) faced almost insurmountable obstacles.
'Failure to support integrated projects,' says Kennedy, 'will result in many slow-motion train wrecks.'