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You can fix rare earths for one White House ballroom
China’s dominance of the sector gives it a technological edge, but one that is not hard to erase.
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Beijing may come to regret thinking that it could ever hold the world to ransom over a pile of dirt, says the writer.
PHOTO: REUTERS
David Fickling
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Given the ability of the words “rare earths” to bring the leadership of the world’s largest economy to its knees, it’s tempting to think that establishing a supply chain to produce the minerals outside of China is a challenge on the scale of putting a man on the moon.
In fact, that’s a vast overestimate. The amount of government spending needed to bulletproof most of the world’s supplies of the elements, essential for high-strength magnets used in military aircraft and munitions as well as electric cars and wind turbines, is tiny.
