On everyone's lips now is Rare Earths, thanks partly to Trump, who has made it clear he's going all out to get them by hook or by crook. Seems with our already proven process if it can be scaled out substantially is a winner BIG time. In the meantime China, the real competitor to the USA sits PRETTY, with the west realising it's playing catch up.
These new technologies are essential, they are not a simple take it or leave it life style choice, AI and robots, national security, but to name a few.
https://www.newsweek.com/explained-donald-trump-rare-earth-minerals-quest-2037622
Donald Trump's Quest To Obtain Rare Earth Elements Explained
Published Mar 01, 2025 at 4:00 AM EST
Updated Mar 01, 2025 at 7:27 AM EST
The push for securing American access to rare earth elements has become a key feature of the early foreign policy agenda of the second Trump administration.
A crucial component of modern technology and a lynchpin of American national security, their supply is controlled largely by China, creating a significant geopolitical challenge which the president seems intent on addressing.
Why Are Rare Earths So Important?
"The importance of rare earth and other critical minerals is hard to overstate," Jane Nakano, Energy Security and Climate Change fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told Newsweek.
The 17 rare earth elements—15 lanthanides, plus scandium and yttrium—possess unique magnetic and electrochemical properties, making them integral for many varieties of modern technology, and critical for multiple industries, including defense and green energy.
Many of these are utilized in graphics processing units (GPUs) and other hardware essential for artificial intelligence, including high-performance magnets in data center cooling systems.
"Data may be the new oil, but you don't get that data without rare earths," said Ryan Kiggins, political science professor at the University of Central Oklahoma.
"No rare earths mean no digital revolution, no tech billionaires, no military technological edge, no artificial intelligence, no smartphones—no selfies with friends on a night out," he told Newsweek. "These 17 elements are essential to both civilian and military technologies that underpin 21st century prosperity and security."
Their name derives from their relative scarcity, i.e., the absence of concentrated deposits and the costs associated with extraction.
Countries with rare earth deposits and the infrastructure required for extraction therefore hold substantial influence, posing a supply chain vulnerability that could soon evolve into a geopolitical threat
The China Vulnerability
China currently exercises an effective monopoly over the rare earth supply chain, according to the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, accounting for 70 percent of global output and 90 percent of the world's rare earth ore processing.
The country was ahead of the curve when it came to understanding the importance of these, propelling the industry with heavy state investment, low labor costs and scant environmental regulations.
According to Kiggins, this began as far back as the rule of Deng Xiaoping (1978-1989), and allowed China to achieve a "stranglehold" on the rare earth market by 2002.
Its dominance is of particular concern to the U.S., which remains heavily reliant on Beijing's reserves. According to the most recent U.S. Geological Survey Report on rare earths, the U.S. imports 70 percent of these from China, a level of dependence that Kiggins said "gives China immense leverage over the U.S. in any conflict, whether trade, military or political."
China has previously suggested using its control over the rare earth supply—and, by extension, its pricing—for geopolitical leverage, prompting the U.S. to seek ways to mitigate this vulnerability.
In one of his first acts as president, Donald Trump signed an executive order entitled, "Unleashing American Energy." Alongside promises to capitalize on the country's oil and natural gas reserves by slashing regulations, the order also outlined America's intention to "establish our position as the leading producer and processor of nonfuel minerals, including rare earth minerals."
As the order stated, this will "create jobs and prosperity at home, strengthen supply chains for the United States and its allies, and reduce the global influence of malign and adversarial states."
However, unleashing America's rare earths to this extent will require an overhaul of the country's existing regulatory framework.
According to a 2024 study by S&P Global, the U.S. has the second-longest mine development timeline of any country in the world, surpassed only by Zambia, with an average of 29 years separating first discovery from first production, which the research firm attributed to underinvestment, complex permitting procedures, and environmental regulations.
"Barring a shift in U.S. environmental regulations, President Trump has little choice but to seek alternative rare earth sources," professor Kiggins told Newsweek.
Ukraine
The need for rare earths beyond China has introduced a new dimension to negotiations over Ukraine's future, with Trump now attempting to cash in on America's generosity toward the country since the launch of Russia's full-scale invasion.
Prior to the verbal confrontation between the president and Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday, the two countries were deliberating on a minerals deal that could grant the U.S. a 50 percent share of the revenue generated from the monetization of Ukraine's natural resources, including rare earth minerals.
In early drafts of the agreement, Trump had sought $500 billion in profits from Ukraine's rare earths. However, this condition was removed after Zelensky said he could not consent to it.
Trump stated that providing the U.S. with a share of the country's resources would serve as compensation for America's past military and financial support, and that Kyiv would also receive "lots of equipment, military equipment and the right to fight on."
Kyiv reportedly assented to the latest version of the agreement prior to Zelensky's visit to the White House on Friday—though the entire prospect is now in jeopardy thanks to the subsequent clash. However, the deal is fraught with potential challenges beyond the now-questionable possibility of securing Ukraine's signature, not least the fact that many of the country's minerals are located in what is currently Russian-occupied territory.
As Wesley A. Hill, lead analyst for the Energy, Growth, and Security Program at the International Tax and Investment Center (ITIC), told Newsweek, Ukraine has a "large problem with inventorying," given many mineral estimates for the country are based on Soviet-era studies, and the conflict has prevented any comprehensive updates from taking place.
"We simply do not actually have a great idea of what minerals are available in what quantities in Ukraine aside from vague ideas that there is a lot, and roughly in what regions they are kept," Hill said. "That alone is a risky proposition for mining companies, especially with mines being a generational venture, and that is before you introduce political risk."
Greenland
Weeks before making his return to the White House, Trump revived an old ambition from his first term which came as a surprise to some, and which likely ties into his desire to shore up America's rare earth supply.
"For purposes of National Security and Freedom throughout the World, the United States of America feels that the ownership and control of Greenland is an absolute necessity," he posted to Truth Social in late December.
Trump has stated that his interest in purchasing—or even taking over—the Danish territory was driven by the frequent passage of Russian and Chinese merchant vessels and warships through Arctic routes close to Greenland.
However, there is clearly another motivation at play, at least according to Eldur Ólafsson, CEO of the Greenlnd-focused mining company Amaroq Minerals.
"Greenland's vast mineral potential represents an opportunity for the West to secure a supply of essential critical minerals—needed for batteries, industrial development and AI infrastructure—and reduce dependence on China," Ólafsson told Newsweek.
Ólafsson described Greenland's mineral wealth as a "key reason" for Trump's interest in the island.
"Securing access to these minerals is also critical for national security, so we can understand why Donald Trump's administration has identified Greenland's resource potential as a potential method to combat China's dominance over the critical minerals supply chain," he said.
"I can confirm that Greenland's underground has 39 of the 50 minerals on the U.S. list that are considered critical/strategic according to our government," Christian Keldsen, director of Greenland Business Association said. "Critical minerals are essential in the green transition and other industries while the strategic minerals are relevant in e.g. arms production."
Others have questioned this as a motivation, with Wesley Hill of the ITIC telling Newsweek that no Greenlandic mineral, however critical, would justify pursuing the "international incident" involved in threatening military intervention against a NATO member—as the territory is through its Danish ownership.
However, given the geopolitical sway that comes with China's domination of the global supply, and the role of rare earths in much of modern military technology, the demand for these elements and national security are not inherently at odds.
"Both motivations can be framed as matters of U.S. national security," said professor Kiggins, "reinforcing President Trump's push to assert American control over critical resources, global trade routes and its Artic security."
The Role of Critical Minerals in American Foreign Policy
Trump's push to secure rare earths likely extends beyond Ukraine and Greenland—Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau believing that his country's mineral wealth is behind Trump's "real" desire to turn Canada into a 51st state.
Ensuring American access to rare earths appears to be a through line of Trump's entire foreign policy agenda, as well as many of his domestic pursuits such as establishing "America's global leadership in AI technology innovation."
Hill of the ITIC believes Trump is not alone in this regard, and that the race for the world's rare earths will soon parallel the global competition for oil and gas that defined much of the political and economic landscape of the 20th century.
"The same way we competed for hydrocarbons, so shall we repeat with rare earth elements," he said.
(20min delay)