davidzaikinuk

@davidzaikin · 10 Jun 2024

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Rare earth quandary: China has US by the throat - David Zaikin

‘The good news is that friendly
nations like Canada, Australia, and India are naturally rich in rare earths’

Australia’s Vital Metals is
getting ready to kick off mining operations at its Nechalacho rare earths
project in Canada’s Northwest Territories, which will make it the country’s
first producer of the elements used in magnets for electric vehicles,
aerospace, defence and electronics. Credit: Vital Metals.

The facts are nothing short of
startling.

A high-tech F-35 stealth fighter
jet contains 920 lbs. of rare earth elements (REEs).

Each US Navy Arleigh Burke-class
AEGIS destroyer has 5,200 lbs., and a Virginia-class submarine has 9,200 lbs.

These commodities are also key to
the future of alternative energy, electric vehicles, mobile phones, and even
headphones.

Combine that with the fact that
80% of all American rare earth supplies come from China.

A nation now run by leader, Xi
Jinping, who recently ordered his Marine Corps — in an act of sheer madness,
or, to up the ante on the US — to prepare for war.

It now controls four-fifths of
the global mined supply of rare earths, and an even larger share of the
manufacture of powerful rare earth magnets — industries worth US$13 billion a
year combined.

This gives the Chinese the
ability to choke off the West’s economies while the struggle to produce the
vital elements elsewhere is mounted.

Meanwhile, the Biden
administration is reeling from a disastrous showing in Anchorage last week,
where Chinese officials launched a history-making vindictive diatribe,
attacking everything America stands for, and then some.

(If you want a sobering read,
check out Bhim Bhurtel’s excellent piece, How China drew a red line in
Anchorage.)

Biden has issued an executive
order calling for a 100-day review of defense industrial supply chains — but is
that enough for a crisis that looms larger with every passing day?

David Zaikin, a Ukrainian-born
Canadian citizen working in London, is the CEO of Key Elements Group and
founder of the Mining Club at the London Business School.

“China is out there and is trying
to win every race globally. The West must do everything it can to subvert its
efforts and find alternative nations to work with,” Zaikin told Inside Sources.

“The good news is that there are
friendly nations like Canada, Australia, and India that are naturally very rich
in rare earths. They are well-positioned to bridge the gap in potential rare
earths shortages, or in the event those are weaponized by the PRC,” he says. Read more--->>>>>