U.S. Department of Agriculture / Peggy Greb
Rare-earth metals, clockwise from top center: praseodymium, cerium, lanthanum, neodymium, samarium and gadolinium.
- The $4 between the US and China continues to escalate.
- Last week, the Chinese government hinted that it's considering $4: a set of 17 metals that are hard to find and difficult to extract.
- China controls a lion's share of the planet's rare-earth materials, which are integral to satellites, smart phones, missiles and more.
- There are good $4, but if the country chooses to do so, it could create a major challenge for tech companies like Apple and even the US Department of Defense.
- $4.
Electric car motors, iPhones, military jet engines, batteries, and satellites all have something in common: They require rare-earth elements to function.
Rare-earth elements are a group of 17 metals that - as their name suggests - form under the Earth's surface and are difficult to find and extract.
But they are crucial to the tech and defense industries; rare-earth metals have unique magnetic, heat-resistant, and phosphorescent properties that no other elements have. This means that they're often non-substitutable materials in smartphone and missile production.
China controls the lion's share of mineable rare-earth deposits. On average, the country has accounted for more than 90% of the global production and supply of these metals during the past decade, $4. Mining and refining these materials isn't easy, and very few countries can compete with China's monopoly on the rare-earth market. $4, the US relies on China for 80% of its rare-earth imports.
That puts China in a powerful position: If its leaders choose to $4 to the US - something president Xi Jinping recently hinted could happen - that could temporarily cripple companies like Apple and Lockheed Martin.
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Even the US Department of Defense (DoD) relies on rare-earth elements for manufacturing. And the US Department of the Interior $4 to the country's economic and national security.
Here are 16 facts about how these highly-coveted materials are mined and refined, and why a possible trade restriction could hurt US tech and defense companies.