The Essence of Rare Earths - Dispelling the Myths

This article by Hallgarten + Company is essential reading for REE investors and government.

Yes, the writing smacks of AI, yet it is diligent and thorough.

From the conclusion:

Chinese companies, to their credit, have more than taken advantage of the advantages provided, and now they are absolute and uncontested leaders in the field of REE. They use all possible means to consolidate their leadership and prevent the development of REE technologies in other countries. To do this, they use various technical and economic techniques: they buy even low-quality REE concentrates (with a high content of the light group and a low content of the heavy group) and even at inflated prices, dump prices on the global REE market, introduce additional quotas and restrictions on the sale of both REE in the form of oxides or metals, and their compounds. for the purposes of political and economic pressure.

At the same time, with the growth and development of the high-tech industry, the need for REE in the world is steadily increasing. Countries that widely use REE products, but do not produce them, become absolutely dependent on prices and supplies from China. [15, 29, 41, 44]. The monopoly of Chinese companies on the world market necessitates the creation (revival) of production facilities for the separation of REE by other countries.

In conditions of almost complete monopolization of the REE market, creating your own REE production becomes difficult not only from the technical and technological, but also from the political side. As it was noted, having a reserve of REE ore, divided REE, and finances, with government support, Chinese companies can literally bring down REE prices, and a new, newly created REE production will operate at a loss until complete ruin. At the same time, China will sell REE to the domestic market at low prices. From this we can conclude that in the long-term (more than 20 years) reliable support from the state is needed to create the production of REE.

Creating one’s own production of REE is a very difficult task. When planning and designing such a production, it is difficult to take into account all possible factors, both internal and external, that can affect the success of the enterprise. But this needs to be done, and we need to start today, or better yet yesterday.

https://hallgartenco.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/REE_Dynamics_July2025.pdf

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Ash here.

China's REE strategy has created a veto over Western industrial development. I don't know how to make that clearer.

Stepping over this to create alternate supply chains will be hard and require resources, commitment and coordination. The narrow pursuit of national interest (Trump, EU) will result in failure.

Australia's Critical Minerals Development Program is useful but insufficient. Bureaucratic assessments on cost and consequences are received with wide-eyed disbelief by civilian politicians.

And the necessary actions need to be taken at speed.

Bloody hell!

Ash