Beijing’s dominance of rare earths crucial to industries from automotive to electronics has sparked a rush among buyers to source the metals elsewhere, with more than 30 projects set for production this decade.
There are 33 “advanced” projects on track to start operating in parts of the world including Europe, Africa and Australia within five years, according to Adamas Intelligence. The advisory firm, which tracks more than 300 rare earths projects globally, said there was a “large influx of public and private funding going into the rare earth space”.
China dominates the production of rare earths that go into the permanent magnets used in industries crucial to the energy transition, such as wind turbines and electric vehicles, putting the metals at the centre of trade tensions with the US. But building new mines is hugely expensive, risky and time consuming.