RE: Telegraph article5 Aug 2025 15:17
Larger companies do.
“I can tell you…we talk about this daily and our companies talk about it daily,” Dak Hardwick, the vice-president of international affairs at the Aerospace Industries Association trade group, told the WSJ.
Since China introduced export licences for rare earths in April, defence firms have been required to fill out extensive paperwork, including providing sensitive information such as product images, to ensure the material is not used for military purposes, Western buyers told the WSJ.
This has led to delivery delays of up to two months, with one drone manufacturing company reporting that its Chinese magnet supplier had demanded drawings of products, a list of buyers and assurances they would not be used for military applications.
“Of course we are not going to provide the Chinese government with that information,” Chris Thompson, the vice-president of global sales for ePropelled, told the Journal.
The company builds motors for drones used in the Ukraine conflict.
DoD boosting production of minerals
Metal importers told the WSJ that Beijing’s demands to know what rare earths are being used means that licences are not being approved for traders to stockpile supplies.
The department of defence has moved “at warp speed” in recent months to boost production of critical minerals, according to Dr Gracelin Baskaran, the director of the critical minerals security programme at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies
This included a $400m investment earlier this month in MP Materials, which operates the largest rare earth mine in the Americas. As part of the deal, the company plans to scale its annual magnet manufacturing capacity from 1,000 metric tons in 2025 to 10,000 metric tons over the next decade.
Last year, the Pentagon also set up the Critical Minerals Forum, which helps metal miners secure funding for rare earth extraction and enables larger defence firms to purchase the materials directly rather than relying on smaller subsidiaries.
“The modern age is powered by rare earth elements, and if we don’t move aggressively to solve this problem, we are always going to be playing catchup,” an industry source said.
Mr Sobolick warned that the US has “sleepwalked into this situation” and that China’s dominance of the rare metals supply chain will give them the upper hand in trade negotiations over the next few years.
Dr Baskaran said: “Rare earths have become the most powerful geopolitical leverage and they’ve become the currency of new geopolitical alliances.
“They continue to be a currency to forge alliances and trade agreements at a time when foreign policy and bilateral cooperation are more complicated than they used to be.”
A spokesman from Lockheed Martin, the US aerospace and defence company, said: “We continuously assess the global rare earth supply chain to ensure access to critical materials that support our customers’ missions. Specific questions about the rar
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