China Limits Critical Mineral Supplies to Western Defense Manufacturers
“As a result, one drone-parts manufacturer that supplies the U.S. military was forced to delay orders by up to two months while it searched for a non-Chinese source of magnets…”
Our amazing Leslie Eastman has been reporting on this subject since January:
- China Prepares to Impose Restrictions on Export of Essential Components for EV Batteries
- President Trump Begins Countering China’s Mineral Mining Offensive
- China Responds to US tariffs with Export Controls on Critical Rare Earth Minerals
- Critical Minerals and Rare Earths Mines Begin Popping Up Outside China After Trump’s EOs
- US Radmps Up Deep-Sea Mining Efforts to Challenge China’s Control Over Critical Minerals
- China Issues New Export Controls on Battery and Critical Mineral Technologies
Defense manufacturers must “stop buying rare-earth magnets that contain China-sourced minerals by 2027.”
Well…it looks like China will make that happen before 2027.
The Wall Street Journal reported that China is now limiting the flow of critical minerals to Western defense manufacturers:
Earlier this year, as U.S.-China trade tensions soared, Beijing tightened the controls it places on the export of rare earths. While Beijing allowed them to start flowing after the Trump administration agreed in June to a series of trade concessions, China has maintained a lock on critical minerals for defense purposes. China supplies around 90% of the world’s rare earths and dominates the production of many other critical minerals.
As a result, one drone-parts manufacturer that supplies the U.S. military was forced to delay orders by up to two months while it searched for a non-Chinese source of magnets, which are assembled from rare earths.
Certain materials needed by the defense industry now go for five or more times what was typical before China’s recent mineral restrictions, according to industry traders. One company said it was recently offered samarium—an element needed to make magnets that can withstand the extreme temperatures of a jet-fighter engine—for 60 times the standard price. That is already driving the cost of defense systems higher, say suppliers and defense executives.
China already banned the U.S. from buying germanium, gallium, and antimony.
The Communist country also requires companies to divulge “extensive documentation of how they will use the rare earths and magnets they import.”
China wants these companies to hand over “sensitive information, such as product images and even photos of production lines, to ensure none of the materials go to military use, say Western buyers.”
These manufacturers need critical minerals from China to produce “microelectronics, drone motors, night-vision goggles, missile-targeting systems and defense satellites.”
President Donald Trump’s executive order fast-tracked the U.S. to mine in the deep-sea for minerals, especially polymetallic nodules.
Polymetallic nodules have nickel, cobalt, copper, manganese, and other rare earth elements.
Defense manufacturers need these minerals to construct their items.
It’s great that Trump made the move, but like everything else, deep-sea mining needs time. It won’t happen overnight.
China’s choking of the supply limit causes problems until the U.S. deep-sea mining efforts deliver the minerals:
On Wednesday, the chief executive of Leonardo DRS said the U.S.-based defense firm is down to its “safety stock” of germanium.
“In order to sustain timely product deliveries, material flow must improve in the second half” of 2025, Chief Executive Bill Lynn said on a conference call. The company is the U.S. subsidiary of Italian defense giant Leonardo.
Germanium goes into the company’s infrared sensors, which are used in missiles and other equipment. Lynn said that the company is looking at diversifying its supply chain while also finding ways to replace it in its products.
Many companies have stockpiles of magnets, but usually only have “less than a year’s worth” of other critical minerals.
WSJ noted that drone manufacturers face the most challenging road:
Drone manufacturers are among the most vulnerable, because many are small startups and have very limited revenue or supply-chain savvy, and never got around to acquiring large stockpiles of rare-earth magnets and metals, say some in the defense industry.
“I can tell you…we talk about this daily and our companies talk about it daily,” said Dak Hardwick, vice president of international affairs at the Aerospace Industries Association, a U.S. defense and commercial aerospace trade group.
Drones need the following critical minerals: aluminium, titanium, magnesium, scandium, nickel, hafnium, copper, beryllium, gallium, germanium, and indium.
The company ePropelled supplies propulsion motors for drones. A Chinese magnet supplier demanded that the company send drawings, pictures, and a list of buyers. At the same time, the supplier required the company to promise “that the rare-earth magnets China would supply ePropelled wouldn’t go toward military applications.”
The Chinese suppliers paused shipping after ePropelled refused to share the information, forcing the company to delay customer orders.
The company has over 100 customers. The list includes “American defense contractors and drone manufacturers in Ukraine.”
To fulfill orders, ePropelled reached out to other suppliers around the world, but most of them rely on China to receive rare earth minerals.
In February 2024, American Rare Earths announced the discovery of over 2.34 billion metric tons of rare earth minerals in Wyoming.
It turns out ePropelled reached a deal with USA Rare Earths and Vulcan Elements, both based in America, but both rare earth mining companies won’t have a steady supply until the end of 2025.
[Featured image via YouTube]
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Comments
hey… but our dei’s can beat up your dei’s
our school systems do not produce mining related personnel etc or veryyyy few as we have dedicated ourselves to not being destroyed by blmplo///too quickly
god save the queen
As it darn well should. That way we can ramp up our own or make arrangements elsewhere.
Chy-na
These are minerals that should be mined in the U.S. We can also purchase from friendly countries that will open mines.
This is, by the way, one of the several reasons why President Trump wants Greenland.
It is positively criminal what politicians and industry executives have done to make us almost completely reliant on China in so many matters. All in the name of a few more campaign donations or dollars. Even a DEI hire could have told you what to expect for depending so completely on ab adversary like this.
When short-term thinkers need to save money, the first thing they throw out is the insurance.
And now we see the Folly of letting your enemies control your supply chains, as if we needed further illustration
But we do it all the time. Look at Parler.
Rare earths (aka lanthanides, atomic numbers 57-71) are the elements that occupy an auxiliary row in the periodic table.
57 Lanthanum
58 Cerium
59 Praseodymium
60 Neodymium
61* Promethium*
62 Samarium
63 Europium
64 Gadolinium
65 Terbium
66 Dysprosium
67 Holmium
68 Erbium
69 Thulium
70 Ytterbium
71 Lutetium
Promethium gets a * because it’s highly radioactive and not found in nature.
Ores containing these elements aren’t so hard to find. The tough part is the processing: separating the elements from one another. Praseodymium and neodymium got their names because they were considered to be twins. Dysprosium supposedly means “hard to get at.”
The only rare earth mentioned by name in this piece is samarium. Many of the other metals that were mentioned may be critically needed for one application or another and may not be widely available but that doesn’t make them rare earths (examples: scandium, hafnium, indium). A few are in fact common: “aluminium” is British for aluminum.