With continued catalysts such as the US China trade/tariff war and Taiwan's reunification, remaining as flash points for further bans.
.
But this is just the beginning.
It is a beginning that has been about 15 years in the making, from about the time China started weaponizing Rare earth exports, and in particular, targeting Japan.
On top of that, Taiwan's TSMC has crunched a 100 billion dollar deal to build 5 advanced semiconductor factories in the US.
Export bans to their defence contractors with little to no sovereign supply.
Supply from Lynas is limited and does not cover the full suite of RE's. Same with MP materials.
Thousands of misslies sent to Ukraine and used in Gaza...and Somalia...and Syria.....stocks must be getting low.
Trump sees the writing on the wall, and it seems to have become a top priority with him.
He continually mentions raw earths..lol...
Increased trade tensions with China leading to further bans must be a concern just too big and too real to ignore...
Greenland...is a bust...
....even if they could develop a mine and processing plant....and refining at an accelerated rate, it would take bloody years...
.
The UK
The stunned mullet.
Wallowing around in the shadow of the US and NATO, they want to be taken seriously as a superpower of Europe, yet are too left and too liberal to be able to accomplish anything.
They move slow and talk everything to death, with little to no action.
However, I must acknowledge their contribution to Ionic Tech and their support in Belfast.
Without them, we may not be here.
Money, tech, support.... they have certainly been there for us, mostly through the APC, with their biggest contribution arguably yet to come.
But they move slow....more words than action...until now.
Their cockeyed and misguided attempt to put boots on the ground in Ukraine and continue this war in my opinion is insane.
More soldiers...more bullets...more bombs...more missiles...more death.
They are not quite there yet, and hopefully do not pursue this folly.
But what they have done is commit 1.5 billion pounds for a missile defence system for the Ukrainians.
They will be built up the road from us in Belfast, and will task Thales, to supply Ukraine with 5000 missiles...with guidance systems...requiring rare earths.
To be clear, the legacy media are trying to sell this as a defence system, but they are a multi role, precision strike missile and can also be used for attack.
One must also question this contract going to the French company Thales.
Starmer is struggling for support in this venture and may be using this lever to carry favour with the French.
What else will the UK commission to be built?
And what if they drag the French and the German's into this mess?
More war...
More billions for missiles...
More rare earths...
.
The EU
What will they do?
Will they follow Starmer to war, or will they follow the US lead for a brokered deal.
Either way, defence spending has and will continue to ramp, in peace or war.
The war is self explanatory, and peace will lead to the re stockpiling of arms depleted in Ukraine and in Gaza....
One may say this is an opportune time for China to play hard ball...to turn off the tap.
An eventuality which has many worried including Trump...and could well happen.
I confirmed today the boys are still os.
Belfast, London, Washington....
What seeds have they planted what fruits have they laboured?
Things move fast in the US, much faster than the UK....will we have a US announcement from left field?
Brazil is fleet of foot and can pivot fast. Viridis just had some great news with some great metrics and with government involvement could come to the party soon.
And now the stunned mullet has a solid reason to splash some cash on defence and weaponry. To secure a sovereign supply of REs and safeguard against Chinese state control.
The macro certainly is stacking up, more than ever before....
Faster, cheaper, replicable, scalable...
Tick, tick, tick, tick...
IXR can be the ones to take them forward.
.
(20min delay)