The head of one of China’s largest rare earth miners boasted recently of the country’s dominance of the critical minerals industry, telling investors that western efforts to weaken Beijing’s grasp were destined to fail.
“Our tech advances will consolidate China’s rare earth price-setting power,” declared Xigang Zhang, chief of Rising Nonferrous Metals Share Co, a subsidiary of one of China’s two state-owned rare earths giants. “International markets will remain dependent on China’s rare earth supply chain for the foreseeable future.”
The US, Europe and Japan are racing to develop a non-China supply chain for the minerals and magnets that are critical to technologies from smartphones to electric vehicles and fighter jets. Currently, western industry is nearly completely reliant on China for rare earths.