CRITICAL MINERALSThe Time to Prevent Shortfalls in Critical Materials Is Now
Rare earth elements are—despite their name—everywhere. They’re in your cellphone, your car, maybe even in a crown in your mouth. They’re in satellites, wind turbines, night-vision goggles, laser-guided missiles, and fighter jets. All of which makes China’s near-total domination of the rare earth market a matter of economic and national security concern.
Rare earth elements are—despite their name—everywhere. They’re in your cellphone, your car, maybe even in a crown in your mouth. They’re in satellites, wind turbines, night-vision goggles, and laser-guided missiles. By one estimate, every F-35 Lightning II fighter jet has around 920 pounds of rare earth elements built into its engines and electronics.
All of which makes China’s near-total domination of the rare earth market a matter of economic and national security concern.
A recent RAND study looked at what the United States can do to break its reliance on China for critical but hard-to-source materials, using rare earths as a case study. It found that existing plans to diversify the market likely don’t go far enough, fast enough—and the clock is running.
“Things are moving in the right direction,” said Richard Silberglitt, a senior physical scientist at RAND who coauthored the study. “But they need to keep moving, and they probably need to accelerate.”
Rare earths and other critical materials like lithium have been called the building blocks of future innovation. Some can be used to make tiny but powerful magnets, the kind needed to power the next generation of electric cars. Others can withstand extreme temperatures, strengthen metals, polish glass, or serve as chemical catalysts; lithium is a key component of rechargeable batteries. Rare earths are not rare—in fact, some are more common than lead or copper—but they’re hard to mine and hard to separate.
The United States was once the only real player in the rare earth market. China started taking over in the 1980s, using cheaper extraction methods and a greater tolerance for environmental destruction. A Los Angeles Times reporter once described a “crusty lake of radioactive black sludge” near one Chinese mine.
Then, in 2010, the captain of a Chinese trawler, possibly drunk, rammed a Japanese Coast Guard ship in disputed waters. Japan arrested the captain and detained his crew, setting off a diplomatic standoff with China. Amid the tensions, reports surfaced that China was planning to cut off its rare earth exports to Japan. China has always disputed those reports—but when its exports dipped, rare earth prices shot skyward.
“Things got serious real quick,” said Fabian Villalobos, an engineer at RAND who led the recent study. “That’s when everybody started paying attention to this.”
