City Journal (by Manhattan Institute) has an excellent article on rare earth mining in the U.S. I read this in print a while back (I subscribe) and had to wait for it to come online. Highly recommend reading the full article, excerpts below.
https://www.city-journal.org/article/rare-earth-elements-metals-technology-china
The stakes [on rare earths] have only risen. In April 2025, China retaliated to a round of U.S. tariffs by restricting exports of seven rare-earth elements to the United States. In October, Beijing took an even more extreme measure, threatening to curb trade of any minerals or products that contain even trace amounts of those elements. The move rattled supply chains and exposed a hard truth: the world’s most technologically advanced nation now depends on its largest geopolitical rival for the materials that make its most important technologies work.
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The emergence of renewable energy and other green technologies in the United States has made mining these materials more important. Electric vehicles require six times more mineral input than a conventional car. A single wind turbine contains hundreds of pounds of rare-earth magnets. According to the International Energy Agency, global demand for critical minerals could double by 2030, driven largely by increased electricity demand. The new economy is not postindustrial; it’s just built on a different kind of mining.
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In the name of protecting the environment, the United States effectively outsourced its mining—and its pollution—elsewhere. By the late twentieth century, mineral extraction had come to symbolize environmental harm. “Not in my backyard” became national policy. [RA – Negative Externalities and ESG investing, anyone?]
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By controlling the refining and magnet-making stages, China doesn’t just supply most of the world with rare earths; it dominates nearly every aspect of the market [through vertical integration and production chokepoints]
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The conflict revealed the extent to which the U.S. government is willing to go to counter Beijing’s rare-earth industrial policies. After China’s initial threat, the U.S. responded by taking the extraordinary step of purchasing equity stakes in several private companies in the critical-mineral sector… Other deals are reportedly in the works, as well as an effort to build a “strategic mineral reserve” to stockpile key materials.
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These arrangements signal a new era of industrial policy for Washington. Beyond just supporting allies in the production of select minerals of strategic national security importance, Washington is taking a page out of China’s playbook by taking partial ownership of key industries—something more common in, say, Europe. [marking] a profound shift in U.S. economic policy and set an uneasy precedent for future government intervention.
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Significant untapped reserves of rare earths can also be found in Brazil, India, Vietnam, and Greenland.
#supplychain #rareearth