(Reuters) – U.S. companies are years away from challenging Chinese dominance of rare earth minerals due to a lack of domestic processing facilities, ensuring the Asian nation will maintain its near-monopoly on refining and powerful leverage in trade talks.
In an escalation of the trade conflict between the two countries, state media on Wednesday implied China could restrict rare earth sales to the United States, stoking fears about Beijing’s role as a supplier.
Although, according to U.S. Geological Survey data, China contains only a third of the world’s rare earth reserves, it accounts for 80% of U.S. imports of the group of 17 minerals used in military equipment and high-tech consumer electronics.
That is largely due to China’s domination in processing. Efforts to build rare earth processing plants in the United States are still in the early stages and lack unified support from Congress and the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump.
At least three U.S.-based companies have rare earth processing plants under construction or in the planning stages. One is set to open next year at Mountain Pass mine, California, when it will become the sole operating rare earth processor in the United States.
For the rest of this article: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-usa-rareearth-refining/china-set-to-control-rare-earth-supply-for-years-due-to-processing-dominance-idUSKCN1T004J