Indeed, Beijing once blocked Japan’s access to rare earth elements during a 2010 dispute over Tokyo’s detention of a Chinese fishing trawler captain. “This should worry us all.”Īll of which leaves the U.S.’s access to rare earths, a critical market still dominated by China, highly vulnerable. “We’ve seen an alarming increase in the number of unsafe aerial intercepts and confrontations at sea by PLA aircraft and vessels,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said this summer. The increasing number of close calls between Chinese and American military pilots over the Pacific this year has raised concerns in the top ranks of the Pentagon that a misunderstanding or provocative action could spark an all-out conflict.

The Department of Defense last month named China its top strategic threat, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan this summer escalated tensions in the region to new highs. And the administration and MP Materials, the company that owns the Mountain Pass mine, are making quick moves to try to close that gap. government officials are worried that the gap in the United States’ rare earths industrial base leaves the country - and particularly the Pentagon - increasingly vulnerable to any disruption in the supply chain.

plan to rival China’s iron grip on rare earth elements.

This rust-colored crater dug deep into the volcanic rock is at the center of a new U.S. Ultimately, the refined materials are converted into powerful alloys and magnets for users around the world. for long: the concentrate produced at Mountain Pass is sold to refiners in China.

Elements 2022