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Cobalt, Critical, Strategic and Rare Earth Minerals and Metals

US Interior publicly backs rare earth mine next to Mountain Pass – by (Mining.com – June 10, 2025)

https://www.mining.com/

Dateline Resources has gained further political support in its bid to develop what could be America’s second rare earth mine following the public backing of US Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum. Speaking to Fox News on Sunday, Burgum called the revival of the Colosseum mine project in California a “pivotal step” towards bolstering America’s supply of critical minerals.

This endorsement, says project owner Dateline, “underscores the strategic importance of Colosseum in reducing US reliance on overseas sources for rare earth elements.” It follows an earlier approval by the Interior Department of the company’s existing mining plan.

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Auto companies ‘in full panic’ over rare-earths bottleneck – by Kalea Hall (CBC News Windsor – June 09, 2025)

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/windsor/

Industry’s efforts to find alternative magnet supplies have floundered

Frank Eckard, CEO of a German magnet maker, has been fielding a flood of calls in recent weeks. Exasperated automakers and parts suppliers have been desperate to find alternative sources of magnets, which are in short supply due to Chinese export curbs.

Some told Eckard their factories could be idled by mid-July without backup magnet supplies. “The whole car industry is in full panic,” said Eckard, CEO of Magnosphere, based in Troisdorf, Germany. “They are willing to pay any price.”

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Clock Ticks as U.S. and China Try to Undo Devastating Trade Curbs – by Ana Swanson (New York Times – June 10, 2025)

https://www.nytimes.com/

Officials from the world’s largest economies will try to strike a deal Tuesday to relax painful export restrictions that they have imposed on each other.

If the United States and China have succeeded at one thing this year, it is finding each other’s pain points. An initial clash over tariffs has grown in recent months into a competition over which country can weaponize its control over the other’s supply chains.

China has clamped down on global shipments of rare minerals that are essential to building cars, missiles and a host of electronic products. The United States has in turn paused shipments to China of chemicals, machinery and technology including software and components to produce nuclear power, airplanes and semiconductors. As the conflict has escalated in recent weeks, it has caused Ford Motor and other companies to suspend some of their operations.

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EU adds 13 new critical mineral projects abroad – by Staff (Mining.com – June 3, 2025)

https://www.mining.com/

The European Union has selected 13 new strategic raw materials projects outside its borders as part of its push to secure critical mineral supplies.

The full list of new projects spans 13 countries: Canada, Greenland, Kazakhstan, Norway, Serbia, Ukraine, Zambia, New Caledonia, Brazil, Madagascar, Malawi, South Africa, and the United Kingdom. The initiative comes as the bloc seeks to reduce its reliance on China, which tightened export controls on rare earth magnets in April.

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What to Know About China’s Halt of Rare Earth Exports – by Keith Bradsher (New York Times – June 3, 2025)

https://www.nytimes.com/

Since early April, China has stopped almost all shipments of critical minerals that are needed for cars, robots, wind turbines, jet fighters and other technologies.

China has suspended almost all exports since April 4 of seven kinds of rare earth metals, as well as very powerful magnets made from three of them. The halt has caused increasingly severe shortages that threaten to close many factories in the United States and Europe. Why are these metals so needed, why has China stopped exporting them and, crucially, what happens next?

What are rare earths?

There are 17 types of metals known as rare earths, which are found near the bottom of the periodic table. Most of them are not actually very rare — they are all over the world, though seldom in large enough ore deposits to be mined efficiently.

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Nationalisation, Sovereignty and Geopolitical Realignment in African Mineral Extraction: The case of West Africa – by Elio Brando (Italian Institue for International Political Studies – June 5, 2025)

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The global resource market is experiencing a sustained surge in demand for crucial minerals, such as gold, lithium, silver, bauxite, uranium, and cobalt. Two key forces are driving this trend: rising geopolitical and economic uncertainties, which are channelling increased investment in hard commodities, and the accelerating technological transition, which demands a significant expansion of mineral production and refinery.

Africa is bound to be deeply affected by current developments. The continent holds approximately 30% of the world’s critical mineral reserves, with individual nations possessing significant shares of specific resources. The global interest in precious minerals (such as gold, platinum, and silver) is paired by a rising demand for critical minerals such as lithium, graphite, cobalt, manganese, and bauxite.

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How Kazakhstan can anchor a resilient rare‑earth supply chain for the West – by Miras Zhiyenbayev (Atlantic Council – June 3, 2025)

Atlantic Council – Shaping the global future together

The rare-earth supply crunch underscores a critical lesson: The United States cannot afford to rely on China’s goodwill for minerals essential to its economy and security. China dominates the rare-earth supply chain, with Beijing supplying about 60 percent of global rare-earths output and controlling up to 90 percent of refining capacity.

For the United States, which needs neodymium and dysprosium for F‑35 fighter jet engines as badly as it needs lithium for electric vehicles, continued dependence on Beijing is impossible. The solution is not wishful “onshoring” to the United States alone; it is establishing a portfolio of reliable partners. Kazakhstan, already the world’s leading uranium producer and a top‑ten copper and zinc exporter, is a prime candidate for such a partnership.

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Global alarms rise as China’s critical mineral export ban takes hold – by Jarrett Renshaw and Ernest Scheyder (Reuters – June 3, 2025)

https://www.reuters.com/

Alarm over China’s stranglehold on critical minerals grew on Tuesday as global automakers joined their US counterparts to complain that restrictions by China on exports of rare earth alloys, mixtures and magnets could cause production delays and outages without a quick solution.

German automakers became the latest to warn that China’s export restrictions threaten to shut down production and rattle their local economies, following a similar complaint from an Indian EV maker last week.

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Green Flashpoints: How The Surge In Renewable Energy May Spark A New Era Of Global Conflict – Analysis – by Syed Raiyan Amir (Eurasia Review – June 2, 2025)

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As the world races to transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy, a new energy order is beginning to emerge—one that promises cleaner air and climate resilience but also portends fresh geopolitical tensions. The shift to solar, wind, hydrogen, and rare earth-powered technologies is not merely a technological revolution; it is a profound geopolitical reordering with the potential to ignite a new spectrum of global conflict.

From the strategic control of critical minerals to green technology rivalry, energy access disputes, and economic power realignment, the green transition may ironically generate new fault lines even as it attempts to heal the planet.

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Arctic Gateway Group says the Port of Churchill will help diversify Canada’s trade links to other countries – by Carlo Cantisani (Globe and Mail – June 2, 2025)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Less than a year into his new job as CEO of Arctic Gateway Group, Chris Avery is finding himself overseeing what is quickly emerging as a critical cog in fighting the Trump-era trade war.

AGG, which operates the Port of Churchill and the connecting Hudson Bay Railway (HBR) in northern Manitoba, strategically links Western Canada to Arctic waters and from there offers routes to Europe, South America and the Middle East.

The company is aiming to become a vital link between Canada and emerging Arctic routes to help boost interprovincial and overseas trade and to reduce reliance on the United States.

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Eramet’s shares slide as Gabon plans manganese ore export ban – by Geert De Clercq, Gus Trompiz and Maxwell Akalaare Adombila (Reuters – June 2, 2025)

https://www.reuters.com/

PARIS, June 2 (Reuters) – Shares in Eramet fell sharply on Monday after Gabon announced an export ban on unrefined manganese from 2029, potentially upending the French mining group’s massive export-orientated production of the steel ingredient in the West African country.

Gabon’s plan, announced by the government in a weekend statement, comes as several African countries – including Guinea, with bauxite, Zimbabwe, with lithium, and Mali, and Tanzania, with gold – seek to move from exporting raw material to local processing.

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Trump Dreams of Minerals: in Ukraine and Greenland – by John Feffer (Foreign Policy in Focus – May 28, 2025)

https://fpif.org/

Trump wants to keep the US in, China out, and everyone else down.

The clean energy transition that the Biden administration touted as the focus of its industrial policy required large amounts of mineral inputs. Batteries for electric vehicles depend on lithium, solar panels contain gallium and molybdenum, and powerful magnets in wind turbines can’t be built without rare earth elements.

Biden’s landmark legislation, such as the 2022 Inflation Adjustment Act, effectively resurrected industrial policy in the United States but this time on the basis of a shift away from fossil fuels. Donald Trump, since taking office in early 2025, has swung U.S. policy back again toward oil, gas, and coal. But the Trump administration is no less interested in securing access to minerals.

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Aus stockpile to tackle ‘distorted’ rare earths market – by Kristie Batten (Northern Miner – May 26, 2025)

https://www.northernminer.com/

Rare earth and lithium producers are cautiously backing the Australian government’s proposed critical minerals strategic reserve, amid fresh details and ongoing concerns over its design. The federal Labor government, re-elected in May, first announced the A$1.2-billion (US$780-million) initiative in April during the closing days of its campaign.

The plan aims to establish a stockpile of critical minerals to bolster national and allied supply chains. Initially offered with limited detail and met with scepticism, the policy has started to take shape.

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Blood Batteries: How Congo’s Conflict Is Shaking the World’s Rare Earths Market – by Veer Puri (Oberver Research Foundation – May 26, 2025)

https://www.orfonline.org/

Global tech giants face a reckoning as Congo’s conflict exposes the dark side of ‘conflict-free’ minerals.

The recent bout of violence in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has translated into a systematic shock for rare earth and critical mineral markets globally. With the DRC supplying much of the world’s tantalum and cobalt—essential components in producing electric vehicles (EVs), smartphones, and modern weaponry—the ongoing violence in the region has triggered a major geopolitical and economic disruption.

Supported by Rwandan intelligence and benefitting from artisanal mining networks, the M23 rebel group’s resurgence exposes the “conflict-free” certification systems of the Responsible Minerals Assurance Process (RMAP) and the International Tin Supply Chain Initiative (ITSCI), and accelerates a worldwide search for substitutes. With tantalum prices surging heavily since late 2024, the crisis highlights how localised violence can set off domino effects across critical sectors such as renewable energy and defence.

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Critical minerals take back seat in WA as gold hits record prices – by Jarrod Lucas (Australian Broadcasting Corporation – May 25, 2025)

https://www.abc.net.au/

A profile image of a man with dark, spiky hair.

In Australia’s resources sector, Tim Goyder has been the man with the Midas touch in recent years. At one point in 2023, his stock holdings in one-time market darlings Liontown Resources and Chalice Mining saw him become a paper billionaire with an estimated net worth of $1.09 billion.

But as fast as the Perth-based mining investor joined the Australian Financial Review’s annual Rich List, such is the swings and roundabouts of commodity price cycles, he slipped off. That is not to say Mr Goyder has lost his golden touch, but his personal fortune reflects the downturn in critical minerals such as lithium and nickel. “Two years ago, everyone was saying lithium was the thing to be in, which I still believe,” he said.

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