Rare Earth Minerals Affected by China Export Ban Used in EVs, Green Energy, and Military Tech
China has restricted the export of several crucial rare earth minerals to the United States in response to President Donald Trump’s tariff increases.
The restrictions come up short of a total ban, but they will probably slow the delivery of minerals needed by defense, energy, and electronics companies.
The term “rare earth minerals” is sometimes used broadly to refer to all valuable or unusual minerals, but in fact it refers to a specific list of 17 metallic elements. Fifteen of them are lanthanides, meaning they occupy a specific region of the periodic table of the elements that begins with lanthanum (atomic number 57). The lanthanides all share similar atomic structure and chemical behavior, so the grouping is not arbitrary.
The other two rare earth minerals are scandium and yttrium. They are collectively known as “rare earths” simply because the scientists who first discovered them believed they must be rare in nature, as they were difficult to identify. For example, the name of lanthanum comes from a Greek word that means “hidden,” and it was discovered by a chemist who was studying strange impurities in another mineral.
Explorers over the past 150 years discovered that some of the “rare earths” can actually be found in abundance by digging into the Earth’s crust. Many of those abundant deposits are under the control of Communist China – affording China a near-monopoly on processing and refining these metals. (Read more from “Rare Earth Minerals Affected by China Export Ban Used in EVs, Green Energy, and Military Tech” HERE)
