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- ⚠️China dominates global rare earths supply
⚠️China dominates global rare earths supply
The world's dependence on China for rare earths is a major strategic vulnerability:
Global Markets Investor
June 10, 2025
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China mines 270,000 metric tonnes of rare earths annually, accounting for ~69% of the global production, according to the US Geological Survey data. Chinese rare earths mine production has tripled since 2014.
By comparison, the US and Myanmar produced just 45,000 and 31,000 metric tonnes, or 11% and 8% of the global production, respectively.
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More importantly, China accounts for ~90% of the global refined production, according to International Energy Agency data.
This means China is the primary location for transforming mined rare earths into usable materials.
As a reminder, rare earths are a group of 17 elements including 15 silvery-white metals called lanthanides, or lanthanoids, plus scandium and yttrium.
There are: scandium, yttrium, lanthanum, cerium, praseodymium, neodymium, promethium, samarium, europium, gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium, holmium, erbium, thulium, ytterbium, and lutetium.
They are used in a wide range of products including consumer electronics, electric vehicles (EVs), aircraft engines, medical equipment, oil refining, and military applications such as missiles and radar systems.
In April, China decided to restrict exports of some rare earths to US in response to the US tariffs. Last month, China temporarily paused export restrictions targeting 28 American companies following trade talks between the US and China in Switzerland. However, China continued to block exports of seven rare earth metals to the US.
Additionally, on Friday, June 6, China granted temporary export licenses to rare-earth suppliers of the top three US automakers for 6 months.
The critical-mineral export controls have become a focus during today’s and yesterday’s trade talks between the US and China in London, UK.
Meanwhile, it appears that the trade talks are not going so well:
#China social media account linked to state broadcaster CCTV spooks Chinese investors who fret #trade talks with @SecScottBessent@USTradeRep@howardlutnick not going so well. “The U.S. should realistically assess the progress made and revoke negative measures against China,” it
— Eunice Yoon (@onlyyoontv)
9:27 AM • Jun 10, 2025
Read more about the possible consequences of the global trade war in the following article.
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