torsdag 12. juni 2025

China has a stranglehold on the world’s rare-earths supply chain. Can Australia break it?

Weeks after China retaliated against Donald Trump’s tariffs by suspending exports of a range of rare-earth elements and related high-powered magnets, Ford was forced to pause a production line in Chicago. Days later, executives from other major carmakers, including General Motors and Toyota, told the White House their suppliers faced an impending shortage of necessary materials that could shut assembly lines.

The speed of the fallout shows just how reliant the world has become on China’s mineral supply chain and its production of rare-earth magnets , used in everything from wind turbines and medical devices to combustion and electric motors, and ballistic missile guidance systems. The Albanese government believes it can help break China’s dominance, but experts say the challenge is enormous.

Prof John Mavrogenes, from the Australian National University’s research school of earth sciences, says the government needs to dramatically boost its investment in skills, education and technology if it wants to develop the domestic capability to manufacture rare-earth products, namely magnets.