Australian firms are edging closer to breaking China’s production stranglehold on the rare minerals used in the world’s critical defence systems, electric vehicles and clean energy transition.
Companies like Iluka Resources, Lynas Rare Earths, and several lithium miners are already refining, or close to producing, the minerals needed for the batteries, electric circuitry and high-strength magnets that underpin the globe’s green energy transition.
Light rare earth oxides, such as neodymium and praseodymium, are used in aircraft engines, electronics, wind turbines and electric vehicles. Heavy rare earths, like the dysprosium and terbium over which China has a stranglehold, are a crucial element in the permanent high-strength magnets used in robotics, defence technology and ocean wind turbines, where they require little maintenance to generate electricity far from the coastline.
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