Can America break China’s grip on critical minerals?

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  The Economist.

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  Would you like to build a fighter jet?

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  What about a smartphone?

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  Or maybe a wind turbine?

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  Well for that, you’re going to need some critical minerals.

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  And to get those, you’ll need to turn to China.

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  China has a tight grip on the world supply of rare earth minerals.

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  But not only is this causing trade tension with the United States, it’s also coming at a huge environmental cost.

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  China has a near monopoly on both the supply and the processing of rare earths,

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  as well as many other critical minerals.

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  And the Chinese government isn’t afraid to use that advantage.

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  China’s retaliation now includes suspending exports of rare earth minerals and magnets to the United States.

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  But China’s dominance didn’t just happen overnight.

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  From the 1960s to the 1990s, the US was a global leader

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  in the mining and refining of many critical minerals.

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  So, what happened?

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  Well for one thing, America thought it would be safer and cheaper

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  to let other countries do the very dirty work of processing this stuff.

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  And that’s when China got going.

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  With the state providing funding, subsidies and other support, giving it the edge in the minerals war.

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