China's rare earth ace fails?
A few days ago, the website of the Financial Times reported an article entitled "Rare Earth Minerals Become the Weather Vane of U.S. Mineral Policy". A place near South Africa's Kruger National Park is becoming a testing ground for the United States to counter China's global dominance in critical minerals, the article said. The U.S. government has pledged financing for a little-known London-listed miner that wants to mine rare earths from here. At the same time, the article also mentions a key message, which is that the United States is now trying to challenge China's absolute leadership in global access to rare earth metals.
Here, it is necessary to correct the wording in the Financial Times article, that the United States is now trying to challenge China's absolute leadership in the world in obtaining rare earth metals, but in vain.
In fact, it is also a conspiracy of the United States.
China is not only the world's largest rare earth reserves, accounting for 37% of the world's largest rare earth producers, but the United States is actually not bad in terms of resources, but it is not allowed to mine, preferring to choose high-priced imports, or cooperate with other countries to develop in other countries.
The importance of rare earths will not be repeated here, only that rare earths are the collective name of 17 chemical elements, which are suitable for various fields of the national economy and defense industry, which shows that they are widely used.
Based on this reality, it can be said that China holds the lifeblood of manufacturing and development in some countries around the world.
But since China restricted rare earth exports in 2018, countries around the world have held various meetings to discuss how to deal with the rare earth dilemma.
On July 3 last year, China's Ministry of Commerce announced that from August 1, in order to safeguard national security and interests, it would implement export controls on gallium, germanium and more than 30 related items.
In December last year, China announced an adjustment to the export of rare earth technology, revising the export policy including rare earth refining and processing technology in the original version.
Since then, none of the United States and Western countries have been calm, and other countries have naturally panicked.
Rare earth order
For example, South Korea, the heel of the United States.
A few days ago, a number of South Korean media reported the same thing, South Korea successfully obtained a large order for rare earth permanent magnets through overseas companies, and cheered that POSCO's overseas large order plans not to use rare earth materials made in China, but to purchase raw materials from the United States, Australia, Vietnam and other countries.
According to relevant reports, the large order is divided into two tranches, POSCO's US subsidiary received an order for permanent magnets worth about 900 billion won (about 4.9 billion yuan) from North American automakers, and the permanent magnets produced will be installed in the drive motors of the car company's new medium and large electric vehicles, and are planned to be supplied between 2026 and 2031.
Another order is from a high-end European car brand, with which POSCO has signed a contract to supply permanent magnets worth about 260 billion won from 2025 to 2034.
After China restricted the export of rare earths, the United States sought "cooperation" with many countries. Of course, the fundamental reason for the United States to do this is not to cooperate, but to get rid of China's dependence on rare earths and avoid China's monopoly on the global market.
South Korea, as the younger brother of the United States, also tacitly acknowledged that China's restriction of rare earth exports has ulterior motives, rather than the protection of resources, so it automatically stands on the opposite side of China and seeks to "get rid of China's dependence on rare earths".
No, just after signing two large overseas orders, the whole country cheered, and said that "behind this is also inseparable from the support of the United States and Western countries."
In the end, the United States is actually very clear that rare earths are non-renewable resources, and there will be a day when the resources will run out, so while undertaking export cooperation, we are looking for development resources.
As for China, it is not that there are no resources to develop, but that it should start protecting rare earth resources and upgrading related technologies.
All countries are advised to also act cautiously and not to destroy entire forests for their own selfish gain.