Link to an interesting article on REEs (from 27 July 2023)....

Link to an interesting article on REEs (from 27 July 2023). (This is not an article on GRL per se.) The article broadly covers many aspects of the global competition to secure REEs and other Critical Minerals.

The New Great Game – Geopolitics of Critical Minerals (substack.com)


Excerpts:

On 3rd July 2023, China announced that it is restricting exports of two rare metals, Germanium, and Gallium, which are key to the production of semiconductors and other high-tech products, which is seen as retaliatory to sanctions imposed by US and allies against China’s semiconductor industry. While this news grabbed headlines and attention, not reported, or missed by much of the media were two policy decisions by India.

In the last week of June, Indian Ministry of Mines released a comprehensive Critical Minerals List, consisting of 30 metals and minerals deemed critical for India’s ambitions in green energy, electronics, telecommunications, transport and defence. The list comprises of 17 rare earth elements (REEs), six platinum group metals (PGMs) and four “Battery Critical” elements: Lithium, Cobalt, Graphite, and Nickel. The list also includes Copper, a mainstay and key component for the green energy transition.

As a part of this broader critical mineral play, during his recent visit to US, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that India will be joining the Minerals Security Partnership (MSP), which is a partnership between the US, Canada, UK, France, Germany, Japan, South Korea, and several other countries formed in June 2022 as an initiative to bolster supply chains for critical minerals.

India is stepping-up its game on a broader canvas, where countries across the globe are scrambling to secure critical minerals supply chains and aim to decouple from China, which has long dominated in supply of most critical minerals.

and

Many of us, immersed in our make-believe digital world, grossly underestimate the importance of this new “Material World” and the implications of any supply chain disruptions to our daily life, a glimpse of it being the semiconductor crisis during Covid.

It has become fashionable for some to propagate the “Dematerialization of Life” myth, built around the fanciful fact that, we now consume less material per dollar of income and the growing importance of services in the economy. But here is the bitter truth: The Material World is the backbone our everyday lives. Without them, our beautifully designed smartphones wouldn’t switch on, our electric cars would have no battery and at the basic level, many of our new energy technologies and the grids that supply our electricity would not function. In 2019 alone, we mined, dug, and blasted more materials from the earth’s surface than the sum total of everything we extracted from the dawn of humanity all the way through to 1950. Our lives won’t come to a grinding halt, if Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook disappear today, but they sure will come to a halt, if a few of these critical minerals are not produced.

and

In 2010, China decided to ban exports of rare earths to Japan for a few months after a maritime incident. Japan relied almost entirely on rare-earth imports from China to produce solar panels, car engine components, and magnets, among other technologies. Again in 2019, in response to Trump administrations dealing of Huawei, China threatened to include certain products using rare earths in Beijing’s technology-export restrictions. China could easily decide to restrict access to rare earths again, on a larger scale with bigger and disastrous consequences.

Post the episode in 2010 episode, Japan started working on an aggressive diversification strategy to find alternative suppliers. By 2021, it had successfully achieved a reduction of Chinese rare-earth imports from 90% of total to 60%. Japan also created Japan Australia Rare Earths (JARE), a special-purpose vehicle created to invest in rare earth mining. In 2023, Japan invested $133 million through JARE in Australian rare earth producer Lynas that would secure priority supply rights for Japan until 2038.


An interesting take on the geopolitical implications of REEs/Critical Minerals and their essential role in the future global order. Worth a read if you can spare fifteen minutes, IMO.