Re. REE, China control over 90% of the market. Funnily enough,...

Re. REE, China control over 90% of the market. Funnily enough, REE's aren't rare at all, it's juat that they're not found in the same level of concentration as your metals etc, so the costs involvef in mining atlre higher. Furthermore, the environmental impact of REE mining and processing is quite bad, thus many Western nations stopped their production.

However, China has been in the past decade or so been playing geopolitical games with supply (see the senkaku islands dispute circa 12 years back). As China becomes more powerful, the more willing it has become to engage in more assertive (aka hostile) actions to better assert its own agenda. The West has realised that with China's continued growth, there is a critical national security issue facing nations as REEs are in everything, including nuclear power plants, medical and military tech, and every single piece of electronic equipment.

So, if we have REEs and that too in a nation like Brazil where regulations are less stringent, it's a win for us. Hopefully though we do things the right way by the locals and their environment.