Asia Mining

https://www.theverge.com/

China has implemented new export controls for rare earth minerals and magnets. The changes could upend the shift to electric vehicles.

The future of everything from smartphones, to military equipment, to electric vehicles hangs on 17 rare earth minerals and the magnets that they’re made into. And China, the world’s largest refiner and producer, is tightening its grip and threatening the US’ largest automakers.

Over the last 30 years, China has methodically cornered the market on mining and refining rare earth minerals, which are used to produce a variety of common items like passenger vehicles and everyday electronics. In the wake of US President Donald Trump’s increasingly aggressive trade war, China is leveraging its position as the world’s largest producer, at the expense of the American auto industry.

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 Asia News Network – Bringing Asia Closer

SHENZHEN – Even as China and the US roll back tariffs and other trade salvos amid a 90-day truce, there is one powerful source of leverage that Beijing appears to be retaining: the control of its exports of critical minerals, including rare earths.

China’s Commerce Ministry said on May 12, the same day that details of the US-China agreement were announced, that strengthening export controls of strategic mineral resources was crucial to national security.

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https://www.bloomberg.com/

China’s weaponization of rare earths in its trade war with the US will spark a much greater focus on American supply security for critical minerals, according to MP Materials Corp., the only US miner of the key materials used in smartphones and defense applications.

“Regardless of how trade negotiations evolve from here, the system as it existed is broken, and the rare-earth Humpty Dumpty, so to speak, is not getting put back together,” the miner’s chief executive officer, Jim Litinsky, said on an earnings call last Friday.

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https://www.reuters.com/

The price of gallium has been rising ever since China started restricting exports of the exotic metal in August 2023. This is not surprising since China has a near monopoly on global gallium production, just as it does across the critical materials spectrum.

How much should we care that the price of something most people have never heard of is trading at 14-year highs? After all, global production last year was just 760 metric tons, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS). Even at today’s elevated prices the world market’s nominal value is a modest $550 million.

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https://thediplomat.com/

Myanmar is China’s top source of raw rare earth elements. As conflict threatens that supply chain, Beijing is moving more directly to intervene in Myanmar’s civil war.

Amid the ongoing conflicts between Myanmar’s military junta and various ethnic armed groups, two recent meetings – one between representatives of the Kachin Independence Army and Chinese officials, and the other between the Myanmar junta and the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) – have taken place in Yunnan, China, which borders northern Myanmar.

China, acting not only as a mediator but also as a stakeholder, has been actively involved in the conflict developments in the northern and northeastern parts of Myanmar.

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https://www.mining-technology.com/

Kazakhstan is looking to position itself as a key player in the global critical minerals supply chain, starting with battery materials.

Kazakhstan hosts substantial reserves of critical minerals including rare earth elements (REEs), copper, lithium, tungsten, tantalum as well as other materials essential for modern technologies and the energy transition.

Recognising the strategic importance of these resources, the Kazakh Government has introduced efforts to attract foreign investment and technological expertise to develop its critical minerals sector.

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