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Interesting article from the Sydney Morning Herald on the weekend....Iluka heavily mentioned. GLTA

Australian firms are edging closer to breaking China’s production stranglehold on the rare minerals used in the world’s critical defence systems, electric vehicles and clean energy transition.Companies like Iluka Resources, Lynas Rare Earths, and several lithium miners are already refining, or close to producing, the minerals needed for the batteries, electric circuitry and high-strength magnets that underpin the globe’s green energy transition.

Light rare earth oxides, such as neodymium and praseodymium, are used in aircraft engines, electronics, wind turbines and electric vehicles. Heavy rare earths, like the dysprosium and terbium over which China has a stranglehold, are a crucial element in the permanent high-strength magnets used in robotics, defence technology and ocean wind turbines, where they require little maintenance to generate electricity far from the coastline.

The minerals refined by Australian companies are now a strategic asset as America swings sharply towards a more transactional trade stance under US President Donald Trump, and Beijing counters US tariffs by clamping down on supply of scarce metals.If Australia is dragged into a trade war with the US and China, “heavy rare earths could serve as a bargaining chip,” said Neha Mukherjee, a senior analyst in rare earths at Benchmark Mineral Intelligence.Within hours of Trump imposing a 10 per cent tariff on China last week, Beijing introduced export controls on a raft of key minerals such as tungsten, tellurium, molybdenum, bismuth and indium that are critical to a range of high-tech goods. China’s Commerce Ministry said the controls were to “safeguard national security interests.”

The clampdown exposes a fault line running through the global economy.China has invested heavily for decades in refining production of critical minerals and rare earths and accounts for 90 per cent of all rare earth oxides used in global manufacturing, effectively controlling all supply of key heavy rare earths. Governments around the world are scrambling to secure supplies of the key minerals, as a result.Rare earths are among very few metals where China has demonstrated a preparedness to withhold supply to achieve unrelated political or other objectives.

We’ve also seen China previously implement restrictions on the export of rare earth processing technology,” Iluka managing director Tom O’Leary said.“We’ve all seen the perils of concentrated supply chain over the last several years, and so there’s much greater awareness now of the importance of security of supply,” O’Leary said.Iluka is building a fully integrated rare earths refinery at Eneabba in Western Australia with the help of a $1.65 billion federal government loan. Within a decade of firing up the plant in 2027, it will account for 10 per cent the world’s rare earth oxide supply, and refine more than a third of globe’s strategically important heavy rare earth oxides, the company says.