Inside the battle to control the worlds supply of rare earths

Back in 2009, Jim Kennedy, a consultant and entrepreneur of rare earths — a group of 17 metallic elements, including 15 lanthanides, crucial for modern technology — met with a top official at the Pentagon to discuss the future of these precious minerals.“He was almost indifferent to the issue,” Kennedy tells The Post.“His dispassion was staggering.

It was one of the most disappointing meetings in my life.”Sixteen years later, that indifference has widely disappeared.Rare earths — used for everything from smartphones, electric cars and airplane engines to medical equipment, wind turbines and military applications like missiles and fighter jets — have become one of the most in-demand and politically contested industries in the world.Rare earths “enjoy an unusual level of bipartisan political support because they are vital both to economic development and national security,” says Melissa Sanderson, a former president and current board director at American Rare Earths, an Australian company focused on developing rare earth projects, including one in Wyoming.Rare earths aren’t just a big part of modern technology; they’re in many ways the most critical components.

They’re used as heat-absorbing agents in wind turbine motors, as strengthening and anti-glare agents in iPhones and fighter jets and as clarifying agents in MRIs.They’re also almost completely controlled by China.Between 2020 and 2023, 70% of our rare earth imports came from China, according to Statista.

That number jumped to 80% last year.And the US is 100% reliant on China imports of Yttrium, a rare earth metal used in everything from cellphones to TVs to radiation therapy used to treat liver cancer.China has been fickle about granting export licenses for rare earths, although their grip has shown recent signs of weakening.President Trump had a lengthy (and rare) phone call with Chinese President Xi Jinping on June 5 and in a social media post after the call, Trump wrote “the...