Critical Minerals Executive Order explained., page-75

Rare Earth Metals Get The Presidential Treatment

Frank HolmesContributor
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Last Wednesday, the president signed an executive order addressing the threat posed by the United States’ overreliance on “critical minerals” from “foreign adversaries.”
To be more specific, “critical minerals” here means “rare earth metals,” and “foreign adversaries” means “China.”
Although not as rare as gold, the group of 17 metals are used in the manufacture of advanced technologies, including electric vehicles, wind turbines and missile guidance systems. Your iPhone contains a number of them. Each F-35 fighter jet has about half a ton of these strategic elements.
The problem is that the U.S. no longer produces barite (used in fracking), gallium (semiconductors, 5G telecommunications), graphite (smartphone batteries) and a number of other materials. “For 31 of the 35 critical minerals, the United States imports more than half of its annual consumption,” according to the press release.
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Today, China controls some 80 percent to 95 percent of the world market, depending on the mineral. Obviously this is a concern, especially given that the country’s exports of rare earths have fallen more than 25 percent year-over-year from January to August due to the pandemic.