Highlights
- China controls 90% of global rare earth processing, creating strategic vulnerability for the United States.
- Mountain Pass mine represents U.S. mining potential, but lacks comprehensive domestic processing and manufacturing capabilities.
- The U.S. must develop a full-spectrum rare earth value chain, from mining to magnet manufacturing, to compete globally.
In a sharply unfolding escalation of the rare earths trade war, Associated Press reporter Josh Funk reports that China’s April 4 retaliatory export controls on heavy rare earth elements have triggered a surge in inquiries to MP Materials, operator of the Mountain Pass mine—the United States’ sole operational rare earths mine. The move comes in response to President Donald Trump’s 125% tariffs on Chinese imports, and has thrown a spotlight on America’s continued dependence on Chinese midstream and downstream rare earth processing, even as national security concerns mount.
The core premise of Funk’s article is clear: while U.S. mining activity, exemplified by Mountain Pass and proposed projects in Nebraska, Montana, Wyoming, and others, is starting to gain momentum, America remains dangerously exposed due to an underdeveloped value chain. The U.S. continues to lack sufficient domestic processing and magnet manufacturing capacity—an omission.
Funk briefly touches on but does not deeply interrogate. MP Materials, for example, still cannot process heavy rare earths like terbium and dysprosium, critical to high-heat permanent magnets, despite nearly $1 billion invested since 2020 and substantial government funding. Funk assumes that simply accelerating mining permits or funding exploration (e.g., NioCorp’s push for an $800 million EXIM Bank loan) will solve the rare earth crisis. But that overlooks the elephant in the room: America’s strategic vulnerability lies not in the rock but in the refinement.
China controls 90% of global rare earth processing—the step that turns ore into value-added, mission-critical materials for EVs, missiles, and semiconductors. Funk notes MP’s halted exports to China, but does not question the long-term viability of Mountain Pass without a full-spectrum domestic value chain.
The Trump administration’s executive orders have spurred new mining initiatives, but without a comprehensive expansion of domestic processing, metal separation, and magnet manufacturing infrastructure, U.S. industry and defense remain vulnerable. And that likely requires industrial policy. “We need to make our own heavy rare earths here in the United States,” says NioCorp CEO Mark Smith—but without midstream investment, that declaration rings incomplete.
Rare Earth Exchanges continues to urge policymakers, investors, and industry leaders to focus not only on raw material extraction, but also on the entire rare earth supply chain—mining, refining, alloying, and manufacturing. Otherwise, America will keep digging holes while China dominates the market.
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