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Cobalt, Critical, Strategic and Rare Earth Minerals and Metals

Trump recognizes that domestic mining is a national security issue – by Sara Vakhshouri (The Hill – April 12, 2025)

https://thehill.com/

President Trump’s executive order to increase domestic critical mineral production has been interpreted as a pro-industry move or a nod to traditional energy sectors. It is both — but more importantly, it is a long overdue national security play.

In the modern geopolitical chess game, America’s mineral vulnerability is not just an economic liability but a strategic one. The order activates the Defense Production Act to boost domestic mining and processing of minerals like lithium, rare earths, nickel, cobalt, copper and uranium.

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China Halts Critical Exports as Trade War Intensifies – by Keith Bradsher (New York Times – April 13, 2025)

https://www.nytimes.com/

Beijing has suspended exports of certain rare earth minerals and magnets that are crucial for the world’s car, semiconductor and aerospace industries.

China has suspended exports of a wide range of critical minerals and magnets, threatening to choke off supplies of components central to automakers, aerospace manufacturers, semiconductor companies and military contractors around the world.

Shipments of the magnets, essential for assembling everything from cars and drones to robots and missiles, have been halted at many Chinese ports while the Chinese government drafts a new regulatory system. Once in place, the new system could permanently prevent supplies from reaching certain companies, including American military contractors.

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Just How Badly Does Donald Trump Want Access to Critical Minerals? – by Nicolas Niarchos (New Yorker – April 15, 2025)

https://www.newyorker.com/

The Democratic Republic of the Congo has some of the largest deposits on Earth. Its President wants to sell them—and win a war.

On a recent episode of Fox News’ “Special Report,” the host, Bret Baier, turned his attention to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a country that doesn’t frequently make headlines in the United States. Using a map of the country, which is two-thirds the size of Western Europe, to educate his viewers, Baier began by outlining the regional conflicts in which the D.R.C. has been engaged, dating back to the refugee crises triggered by the Rwandan genocide of 1994.

He added that “Congo is considered the world’s richest country in terms of natural resources,” containing untapped supplies worth “an estimated twenty-four trillion dollars, with a ‘T.’ ” Those resources include gold, diamonds, and so-called critical metals, such as cobalt and lithium, which are used in rechargeable batteries.

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Gold rush unleashed: The global struggle for control over Central Asia’s mineral wealth – by Zeynep Gizem Özpınar (Daily Sabah – April 10, 2025)

https://www.dailysabah.com/

Central Asia’s mineral wealth sparks global rivalry, shaping the region’s economic and geopolitical future

Central Asia is becoming increasingly critical on the world stage in terms of rare earth elements and strategic minerals. These resources have become indispensable in many sectors, from modern technology to the defence industry, from renewable energy to advanced manufacturing processes.

Since rare earth elements have a wide range of uses, from semiconductors to batteries, from military equipment to wind turbines, countries with these minerals are strategically important. While the competition of global powers in this field is increasing, the riches of Central Asia turn the region into not only an economic centre of attraction but also a geopolitical battleground.

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Why Canada’s long-term fate could hang on unlocking the Arctic — now – by Joe O’Connor (Financial Post – April 9, 2025)

https://financialpost.com/

Donald Trump has forced a new urgency on the campaign trail and up and down the country to unleash the North’s potential or risk Arctic sovereignty and a northern treasure trove of resources

Brendan Bell knows what it is like to be ignored. It wasn’t so many months ago that the chief executive of West Kitikmeot Resources Corp., an Inuit-owned company proposing to build a road and deepwater ocean port in the Arctic, was spending a chunk of each day waiting for non-Arctic people to return his phone calls to discuss the project.

“This road is not a new idea,” he said. “Roads have a long history in the North.” Do they ever. Yet that history can be summarized as roads — and major infrastructure projects of all types — may get proposed for the Arctic, but they generally don’t get built. No surprise then that Bell had been contending with an utterly non-urgent vibe from other people in relation to the Grays Bay Road and Port Project. That is until recently, when a lot of those same people started calling him back.

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OPINION: A bold Canadian Arctic strategy isn’t just good policy – it’s good business – by Gary Mar and Mark Norman (Globe and Mail – April 9, 2025)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Gary Mar is the president and CEO of the Canada West Foundation. Vice-Admiral (Ret’d) Mark Norman is a former vice-chief of the defence staff.

Canada is an Arctic nation. It’s about time it started acting like it. Unlike the Scandinavian countries and Russia, Canada has reluctantly viewed itself in this manner, instead considering the North as a sort of national park where development is frowned upon.

The economic value of the region has been played down, and the need to defend that value was discounted under a rosy view of a peaceful world anchored to the benevolent hegemony of the United States. That all changed with the second inauguration of Donald Trump in January, and his rhetoric that Canada should become the 51st U.S. state.

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Column: China primes rare earths weapon as trade war escalates – by Andy Home (Reuters – April 10, 2025)

https://www.reuters.com/

As U.S. President Donald Trump turns up the tariff heat on China, Beijing is targeting ever more of the United States’ critical material supply chains.

Weird and wonderful metals such as antimony, gallium and germanium have already been sucked into the escalating trade war with China restricting exports and banning sales to the United States. Beijing has just raised the mineral threat another level by adding seven rare earths to its dual-use list of restricted exports.

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Canada poised to fill some of rare earths void as China curbs U.S. exports in retaliation to Trump tariffs – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – April 5, 2025)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

China is expanding its export controls on minerals used in strategic industries as part of its retaliation against U.S. tariffs, putting Canada in a position to potentially fill some of the void. U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday hit China with additional 34-per-cent tariffs, on top of the 20-per-cent levies he had already imposed. The assault on China is part of Mr. Trump’s global suite of “reciprocal” tariffs targeting countries his administration perceives as treating the U.S. unfairly.

Beijing on Friday fired back, announcing its own tit-for-tat tariffs of 34 per cent on all imports of U.S. goods. But it also announced new controls on the exports of rare-earth minerals, including scandium, samarium, gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium, lutetium, and yttrium to the U.S.

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China deploys rare earths as weapon in trade war with Trump (Bloomberg News – April 7, 2025)

https://www.bloomberg.com/

China has expanded its use of critical minerals as a trade weapon with curbs on exports of rare earths, threatening to shake-up the global supply of key materials used widely in high-tech manufacturing from electric vehicles to weaponry.

As part of its retaliation to President Donald Trump’s so-called reciprocal tariffs on imported Chinese goods, Beijing said Friday it will tighten controls on exports of seven types of rare earths. The country is by far the world’s biggest supplier of the minerals, which comprise 17 elements in the periodic table.

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The US is negotiating a minerals deal with conflict-hit Congo, a Trump official says – by JEAN-YVES KAMALE and MARK BANCHEREAU (Associated Press – April 3, 2025)

https://apnews.com/

KINSHASA, Congo (AP) — A Trump administration official said Thursday the United States is in talks with conflict-plagued Congo on developing its mineral resources under a deal the Congolese president has said could help make his country safer.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s senior adviser for Africa, Massad Boulos, did not provide details of the potential deal following talks with Congo’s President Felix Tshisekedi in Kinshasa, but he said it could involve “multibillion-dollar investments.”

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Building an integrated critical minerals sector in Canada – by Atkins Réalis (Canadian Mining Journal – April 3, 2025)

https://www.canadianminingjournal.com/

A vital investment to meet growing demand and enhance everyday life

It is no exaggeration to say that we could not survive in a modern society without critical minerals; they are found in hundreds of things we use everyday from cell phones and laptops to tea kettles and toothpaste.

Manufacturing, construction, agriculture, artificial intelligence, and clean technologies are just a few examples of the industries that are dependent on this sector, which is set to have a global market value of US$770 billion by 2040.

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China hits back at US tariffs with rare earth export controls – by Amy Lv, Lewis Jackson and Eric Onstad (Reuters – April 4, 2025)

https://www.reuters.com/

China placed export restrictions on key rare earth elements on Friday as part of its sweeping response to President Donald Trump’s tariffs, potentially squeezing supply to the U.S. and the West of minerals vital to everything from defense to electric cars.

China produces around 90% of the world’s refined rare earths, a group of 17 elements used across the defense, electric vehicle, clean energy and electronics industries. The United States imports most of its rare earths, and most come from China.

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NICO project in Northwest Territories could establish domestic bismuth supply – by Amanda Stutt (Mining.com – March 31, 2025)

https://www.mining.com/

Bismuth prices surged to all-time highs on the European spot market in March, a more than six-fold rise since January, as China’s export controls squeeze supplies of the mineral used in atomic research, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals.

China in February announced plans to impose export controls on five key metals — tungsten, tellurium, molybdenum, indium and bismuth — in response to US President Trump’s import tariffs. Bismuth is a scarce industrial metal that has characteristics similar to lead, but is non-toxic, and the industry is currently developing uses for replacing lead.

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Minister Lecce talks about his new expanded portfolio, meetings in Washington – by Barbara Patrocinio (iPolitics.ca – April 1, 2025)

https://www.ipolitics.ca/

“The Americans are waking up to the reality that they are dependent on China for critical minerals, and they need an alternative,” Lecce said. “Ontario is the answer.”

A day before President Trump is poised to announce tariffs that experts say will harm the economy in both countries, Ontario’s Energy and Mines Minister Stephen Lecce went to D.C. trying to position the province as Washington’s most reliable partner.

“The Americans are waking up to the reality that they are dependent on China for critical minerals, and they need an alternative,” Lecce said. “Ontario is the answer.” Minister Lecce attended the SAFE Summit in Washington, a meeting with the global leaders in energy, transportation and supply chain.

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America’s long Arctic love affair is culminating in Trump’s designs on Greenland – by Peter Harmsen (Globe and Mail – April 2, 2025)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Peter Harmsen is a journalist and the author of Fury and Ice: Greenland, the United States and Germany in World War II.

The historically minded among us may have sensed a certain déjà vu this weekend when U.S. President Donald Trump talked to NBC News about the role military force could play in gaining control of Greenland, currently an autonomous territory of long-time ally Denmark: “I don’t take anything off the table.”

After all, in 1940, when the Americans were slowly waking up from their isolationist slumber to side with the Western democracies in the struggle against fascism, they took a break from this grand mission to threaten Canada and Britain with armed might to keep Greenland to themselves.

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