The Global Race for Rare Earth Minerals
04:48 Share

Today on State of the World, the global race for rare earth minerals.

You're listening to State of the World from NPR. We bring you the day's most vital international stories up close where they're happening. I'm Greg Dixon. The race is on for control over deposits of what are known as rare earth elements and critical minerals. These are needed for much of our technology. China is the leader in this global competition, with the U.S. lagging behind.

President Trump recently signed an executive order invoking wartime powers in an effort to boost U.S. production of these resources. NPR's Jackie Northam tells us about this global race and the stakes. Greenland, Canada, and Ukraine have all been the target of President Trump's ire lately. Another thing these countries have in common is an abundance of critical and rare earth minerals, and Trump wants them. Here he is talking about Ukraine's minerals. We need to

don't have that much of it here. We have some, but we don't have that much, and we need a lot more. Rare earth are a bundle of 17 elements with tongue-twisting names like aterbium, a delpricium,

Then there are critical minerals that include cobalt, lithium and nickel. All are key components for a new era of technology and in high demand right now. There's multiple simultaneous trends that are increasing the scramble for rare earth elements and critical materials. Julie Klinger is a professor of geography and a rare earth specialist at the University of Delaware. She

She says one of the factors propelling the race for rare earth and critical minerals is the demand for sophisticated defense technology. Another is the shift to renewable energy generation within the next decade or so. And then a third, I would say, would be the continued demand for consumer electronics. Think smartphones, AI and the like.

But the U.S. is lagging behind in securing those resources, says Jose Fernandez, a senior State Department official for Energy and the Environment under the Biden administration. He says the U.S. has just a fraction of the lithium, gold, cobalt and other minerals it needs, leaving it vulnerable. Because right now, most of these rare earths and critical minerals are owned, mined, processed or controlled by the People's Republic of China.

China can and does withhold the export of some metals to the U.S. for political reasons, or, say, in response to tariffs. China's always there for more. Gracelyn Baskaran is director of the Critical Mineral Security Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

She says China is aggressively searching for new sources of critical minerals, willing to go into conflict zones such as the Democratic Republic of Congo to get the metals. I don't know that the Chinese approach is to go, OK, we've had enough now. We'll let other people cut it to our market share. They're absolutely out there still looking to make their existing investments bigger, get new acquisitions.

Around the mid-20th century, the U.S. was a major producer and exporter of rare earth elements, but that began to collapse starting in the 1980s, due in part because of growing environmental concerns. Only one mine, Mountain Pass in California, still produces and processes rare earths in the U.S. Hence, President Trump's desire to find other sources.

Fernandez says threatening countries is the wrong way to go about it. It's unnecessary because countries want U.S. investment. It's also counterproductive because if you go to a greenland and you say, I'd like to take you over, I'd like to buy you, well, that creates a political issue. And it's not certain how commercially viable the mineral deposits are in some of these countries.

The reality is that in both the case of Greenland and Ukraine, these deposits, they've been identified, but there's been very little work done on them. Adam Webb is with Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, a London-based market analysis company. You may have a concentration of, for example, lithium,

but you may not be able to extract it and make a profit from it. It may just not be at high enough concentration. And if it does, it will take a long time to get there. Webb says it could take 10 or 20 years before the critical minerals come out of the ground, a long time in the race for dominance of rare earth and critical minerals. Jackie Northam, NPR News. That's the state of the world from NPR. Thanks for listening.

This message comes from NetSuite by Oracle, the number one cloud ERP, bringing accounting, financial management, inventory, and HR into one platform. Download the CFO's Guide to AI and Machine Learning for free at netsuite.com slash story.

This message comes from Lisa. Since 2015, Lisa has donated over 41,000 mattresses nationwide. Elevate your sleep with Lisa. Go to Lisa.com for 20% off plus an extra $50 off with promo code NPR.