China provides more than 85% of the world’s rare earths and it is home to about two-thirds of the global supply of rare metals and minerals like antimony and baryte, reports confirm.
The U.S. and Europe are worried that any disruption to their supply chains for such products would hurt key industries.
Western countries are becoming concerned about their reliance on China for supplies of rare earth elements and other scarce metals and minerals that are essential for the manufacture of electric car batteries, satellites, weapons, wind turbines and solar panels.
The Biden administration’s push to reduce U.S. reliance on Chinese imports has renewed domestic efforts to produce rare earths minerals, critical to the production of electric vehicles and electronics.
A new bipartisan Senate bill is aiming to accelerate that timeline, by banning defense contractors from sourcing those materials in the first place.
Senator Mark Kelly called Chinese rare earth minerals “a national security risk” and urged the Pentagon to act quickly to eliminate the metals from military weapons systems.
“We’ve got to stop relying on Chinese rare earths in our defense industry. It’s a national security risk to us. If China decided to cut us off on those rare earth minerals right now, this would have a serious impact on our national defense,” Kelly said. “So, this requires that DOD and the Department of Interior work together to build a stockpile of rare earth minerals.”
The bill marks the latest U.S. attempt to break China’s near monopoly on a group of 17 metals that are crucial to the development of everything from smart electronic devices to wind turbines. The country controls nearly 80% of rare earths imports, according to data from the U.S. Geological Survey, while the U.S. claims just one rare earth mine and has no capability to process the minerals.
Last month, China moved to strengthen its hold on the market by consolidating key producers within a new conglomerate to double down on the development of mines in China.
