In a display of BridgeView PR Service’s writing expertise, we asked our main writer, Pat, to explain what the rare earth mineral fuss is all about. In true fashion, he dug deep to present a captivating case study — on a global scale. These rare earth minerals are the lifeblood of our technology and a global currency to carefully watch.

At the intersection of technology and plain language, you will find Bridgeview PR Services. Enjoy this enlightening look into one of the most valuable assets that touch all our lives.

Rare Earth Minerals: Batteries, Soldiers, Magnets, and China

“The Middle East has oil, China has rare earths.” ~ Deng Xiaoping

Since the 1990s, China has built and maintained a monopoly over rare earth minerals, which are key components in cell phones, computers, renewable energy technology, electric vehicles, military weapons, and many other electronic products. Rare earth minerals, however, are not rare despite their name. They are found in significant quantities worldwide, but they are difficult to extract and refine.

Data centers in the U.S. rely on China for rare earth minerals used in batteries. Reliable power is key to successful data center operations, and batteries have become increasingly critical for backup power. It might be alarming to realize that the data centers powering America’s artificial intelligence industry are reliant on China.

“Electricity is not simply a utility,” the A.I. giant OpenAI said in an October [2025] letter. “It’s a strategic asset that will secure our leadership on the most consequential technology since electricity itself.”

Besides data centers, the U.S. military is also concerned about China’s control over rare earths. The Tomahawk missile’s accuracy is enabled by magnets made of samarium, a rare-earth metal processed almost exclusively in China. Ukraine needs millions of rare-earth batteries from China to power its drones, lasers, and other weapons.

To put it simply: China has rare earth dominance, and a reliable supply of rare earth minerals is a critical component of every nation’s energy security, which is really indistinguishable from national security.

The demand for rare earth minerals assures that, for governments and corporations, 2026 is going to be about finding deposits, or at least workarounds. NASA has already been put to the task. Flying planes more than 10 miles above the Earth, NASA is currently involved in a mapping project designed to locate minerals in the U.S.

Today, China mines 70 percent of the world’s rare earths and processes about 90 percent of them. America’s current dependence on China for rare earths is not sustainable.

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The 17 Rare Earth Elements

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How China Got Its Stranglehold on Rare Earths

In 2025, China used its rare earth monopoly to cut off Western companies’ access, and when it did, industry giants such as Ford and Tesla were rattled, forcing the U.S. to the table for trade talks. But how did China get such power?

Beginning in the 1990s, the Chinese government provided financial support to the country’s leading mineral companies, passed laws preventing foreign companies from buying rare earth mines in China, and banned the export of rare earth technologies. Eventually, it consolidated its rare earth industry into a few giant players, giving it further leverage over prices.

The result was that China created a supply chain of mines and refineries. When the U.S. tried to reignite its rare earth enterprises, China flooded the market with minerals, throwing Western producers into a tailspin.

As Western rare earth companies’ valuations collapsed from the low prices caused by soaring Chinese production, they were forced to slow their expansions, and in some cases, sell their mines to Chinese buyers.

Beijing had a methodical approach to dominating the industry—and it now accounts for around 90% of global refined supply.

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Batteries In The Military

The auto industry has long faced the problem of Chinese battery dominance, but now this disparity is being viewed as a national security threat. Currently, the U.S. relies on Chinese supply chains for batteries to power its weapons programs. The U.S. needs alternative sources of rare earths so that its ability to make weapons does not depend on the goodwill of a potential adversary. Breaking China’s rare earth monopoly is crucial for America’s national security.

“Every Chinese export restriction since 2022 has reverberated directly onto the battlefield,” said Catarina Buchatskiy, a defense expert at the Snake Island Institute, which focuses on military technology.

Lasers, handheld radios, night-vision goggles, satellites, and drones all use batteries that contain rare earth elements. The average soldier carries as much as 25 pounds of batteries for a standard 72-hour patrol.

Elaine K. Dezenski, an expert on geopolitical risk and supply-chain security at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said, “When we think about the future of manufacturing and defense, and how we should be protecting critical supply chains, the chips are the brain, and batteries are the heart.”

As Europe faces a more aggressive Russia and an increasingly isolationist America, it, too, is realizing that it must break China’s control over rare earths. The EU imports about 98 percent of its rare earths from China. After Beijing tightened export controls on rare earth elements in 2025, EU President Ursula von der Leyen was forced to take steps to diversify the bloc’s supply chains of rare earth elements.

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The U.S. Needs to Break China’s Grip On Rare Earths

The Trump administration has taken some steps to end China’s dominance of rare earths. In July of 2025, the Defense Department invested $400 million to take a 15 percent stake in MP Materials, a Texas company that owns a rare earth mine in California.

In Texas, men dressed in head-to-toe protective gear dip giant ladles into a well of molten metal heated to 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit. They’re making something the U.S. has hardly, if ever, produced at a commercial scale in recent decades: Rare earth metals.

This Texas facility is completing a supply chain so it can start converting large quantities of its minerals into high-grade magnets. As a result, the company has entered into agreements to produce magnets for Apple and General Motors. This facility and the mine it controls in California (which is now the largest source of rare earth minerals in the Western Hemisphere) are a billion-dollar bet that an American company can take on China.

However, constructing all the mines, refineries, and factories needed to provide an alternative to Chinese supplies will take years. Beyond ventures such as MP Materials, the administration is also seeking to pursue deep-sea mining projects and partner with African mines that are not yet under Chinese control.

The Trump administration understands that the U.S. must find sources of rare earths outside of China, which is why it has established a policy of buying ownership stakes in private companies it deems essential to national security. The Defense Department will take a 10 percent stake in a rare earth mine in Alaska, and the government also announced an equity deal with a North Carolina-based start-up that makes rare earth magnets.

Officials estimate it will take more than $3 billion in investment to reshore supply chains.

Three Innovative Rare Earth Companies

1. Phoenix Tailings is a U.S. start-up seeking to break China’s rare earth monopoly. Recently, they began producing metal in New Hampshire and are using new processing methods to compete with Chinese suppliers. The metal will be used to make electric vehicle motors and maybe fighter jets. Phoenix Tailings has been awarded more than $6 million in federal funding.

Metal making is the final step in the long, often fragmented process of rare earth refining. Eventually, Phoenix Tailings aims to control all of those stages, taking in waste from iron mining — known as tailings — removing the rare earths and separating them into individual elements to be made into metal.

2. Arnold Magnetic Technologies, a Rochester, New York-based manufacturer of samarium-cobalt magnets, realized that America’s ability to produce missiles was threatened during the recent tariff war. So, they stepped up to keep the supply chain flowing. The Tomahawk missiles’ accuracy is possible because their fins use powerful magnets made of samarium — a rare earth metal that can tolerate high heat. Unless new sources of samarium, or a substitute, can be found, America won’t be able to build precision-guided missiles or fighter jets. Luckily, Arnold Magnetic Technologies had over a year’s supply of the metal on hand when China announced its export controls on April 4th of 2025.

3. Conifer, a start-up in Sunnyvale, California, has developed a compact, disc-shaped electric motor that operates without rare earth magnets. Weary of geopolitics, car companies are now looking for ways to replace rare earth magnets in electric motors, including windshield wiper motors and mechanisms that adjust seats. Magnets made with the rare earth elements neodymium, dysprosium, and terbium are essential for the motors that move electric vehicles and hybrids. BMW is using motors without neodymium or other rare earths in models like the iX sport utility vehicle.

Other exciting possibilities have arisen in North Carolina, where Vulcan Elements, a magnet maker, plans to supply the military starting next year. Another company in Texas, Noveon Magnetics Inc., has signed a deal to supply U.S.-made rare earth magnets for Japan’s Nidec, which is among the world’s biggest motor makers. And a German magnet company, VAC, is expected to begin operating a large, Pentagon-funded factory in South Carolina later this year.

CONCLUSION

The U.S. has signed trade deals for the mining and refining of rare earths with Australia, Japan, and Saudi Arabia. The U.S. also has significant underground reserves of rare earth elements. Both are good news, because China has powerful leverage over the U.S. through rare earth metals, which are essential to cars, fighter jets, drones, smartphones, computers, M.R.I. machines, and a wide array of electronics.

It’s great that a Texas company with a California mine (MP Materials) has stepped up to take on China; however, the magnets are likely to be 50% more expensive to produce than China’s, which is now actually tweaking magnet formulas to avoid using certain restricted rare earth elements and devising ways to make superior magnets without rare earths.

When China put restrictions on rare earth exports in 2025, it cut off the supply of rare earth metals to U.S. defense contractors. That forced the U.S. to make a deal with two European companies, which gave it access to a new but limited source. The administration has also given an $80 million loan to an Indiana firm that is using new technology to process rare earth elements. And a Canadian company has received $22.4 million in grant funding from the U.S. military to build a facility in Louisiana dedicated to producing rare earth elements.

Protecting U.S. access to rare earths needs to be a bipartisan, long-term project. The need is glaring! However, the federal government must be careful with picking winners and losers. It might be best to keep in mind the notion that when a government starts deciding which companies deserve special treatment, the result isn’t prosperity—it’s distortion. It’s always been supposed that the free market allocates resources best when prices reflect real costs. Political promises can cross those signals, short-circuiting efficiency and innovation.

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ADDENDUM: RARE EARTH SOURCES OTHER THAN CHINA

Japan has met its rare earth needs by importing minerals from Australia. Japan’s program depends on government subsidies. Without it, it would not be profitable for private companies to make the investments needed to mine and process rare earths and compete with China’s heavily subsidized products.

Brazil has 23% of global reserves of rare earth minerals, second only to China, but its production is still at an early stage, accounting for only 1% of the worldwide market. Minaçu, a small city in Brazil, is set to become the first rare earth mining operation outside Asia to produce rare earth on a commercial scale.

Greenland and its rare earth reserves are on President Trump’s radar. The administration has reportedly been engaged in negotiations to invest in mining operations located in Greenland. Greenland is believed to have significant oil deposits and a variety of minerals, including rare earth elements.