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April 25, 2025
 

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RARE EARTHS

Samples of rare earth minerals on display at the Molycorp Mountain Pass Rare Earth facility in California in 2015
WORLD / Politics
Apr 16, 2025
Seven rare earth metals that China is weaponizing against the U.S.
China’s dominance of both mining and processing rare earth minerals means these niche metals have become a cudgel to use against opponents.
Workers transport soil containing rare earth elements for export at a port in Lianyungang, in China's Jiangsu province, in October 2010.
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 14, 2025
China halts critical rare earth exports as trade war intensifies
The official crackdown is part of Beijing’s retaliation for President Donald Trump’s sharp increase in tariffs that started April 2.
A rare earth open-pit mine in Mountain Pass, California. U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order that taps the Cold War-era Defense Production Act as part of an effort to domestically process a range of critical minerals.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 21, 2025
U.S. moves to curb China’s grip on critical minerals
Trump invokes emergency powers for more U.S. mining, citing economic and security concerns.
U.S. President Donald Trump throws a pen after signing an executive order in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 26, 2025
U.S. and Ukraine agree to terms of critical minerals deal
The latest version of the deal still doesn’t spell out specific security guarantees, though Ukraine sees it as a starting point toward that possibility.
U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin hold a bilateral meeting at the Group of 20 leaders summit in Osaka in June 2019. A Putin-Trump summit is on the horizon.
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Feb 20, 2025
Russian forces advance on Ukraine's critical minerals as Trump talks of a deal
The seizure of Kyiv's mineral wealth, while not the main war aim, is among Moscow's strategic goals, experts say.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy shows a map of strategic resources and objects during an interview in Kyiv on Friday.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 8, 2025
'Let's do a deal': Zelenskyy offers Trump mineral partnership, seeking security
The U.S. president said on Monday he wanted Ukraine to supply the U.S. with rare earths in return for financially supporting its war effort.
Workers construct an array of solar panels for a floating photovoltaic solar energy farm near Cottbus, Germany, in August 2024.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jan 30, 2025
Red tape and rare earths: EU 'compass' charts economic future
The publication of the "competitiveness compass" aims to mark a change of tack toward a more business-friendly Brussels.
High-performance magnets are used in electric vehicles, smartphones and other products. Kyoto University researchers have developed a light, low-cost and high-performance carbon magnet.
JAPAN
Jan 9, 2025
Carbon magnet brought closer to practical use
Carbon, which is easy to obtain and is light, is attracting attention as a magnet material.
An automated truck is seen at Anglo American's Quellaveco copper mine in Peru in April.
JAPAN
Nov 9, 2024
Japan and Peru to agree on mineral mining technology tie-up, report says
Resource-poor Japan has been actively reinforcing global supply chains for critical minerals — essential components for decarbonization technology.
Flames leap out of an oven where rare-earth-based chemicals are roasted for more than 20 hours, in Changshu, China.
BUSINESS / Tech
Oct 27, 2024
China tightens its hold on minerals needed to make computer chips
The country already produces nearly all the world’s supply of these materials. The new restrictions solidify that market dominance.
The Mountain Pass mine, operated by MP Materials in California, is the only rare earths mine in the United States.
BUSINESS / Economy
Sep 17, 2024
China’s grip on rare earths undercuts projects from U.S. to Japan
Japan's experience reducing its dependence on China shows that rare earths projects take longer and are more expensive than initially expected.
Samples of rare earth minerals cerium oxide (left), bastnasite (center left), neodymium oxide (center right) and lanthanum carbonate
BUSINESS / Markets
Aug 20, 2024
Not-so-rare earths: Ample supply weighs on prices of key minerals group
Exports of rare earths from China, the dominant producer, climbed 7.5% year-on-year in the first seven months of 2024, but prices still fell during that period.
Tools at an exploration site run by KoBold Metals in Chililabombwe, Zambia, on June 11. A complex AI-driven technology that data crunchers at KoBold Metals painstakingly built over years helped identify a copper bonanza deep below a site in Zambia, and the company’s process could radically transform the discovery of metal and mineral deposits critical not only to the tech industry but to the fight against climate change.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jul 18, 2024
AI joins search for needed metals just in time
KoBold’s find comes as the United States and China are increasingly clashing over global access to minerals.
Workers transport soil containing rare-earth elements for export at a port in Lianyungang, China, in October 2010.
BUSINESS
Jun 30, 2024
China issues rare-earth regulations to further protect domestic supply
The rules focus on the mining, smelting and trade in the critical materials used to make products from magnets in electric vehicles to consumer electronics.
A rare earths plant owned by Neo Performance Materials in Sillamae, Estonia
BUSINESS / FOCUS
Jun 27, 2024
In race to regain rare earth glory, Europe falls short on mineral goals
EU demand for rare earths is forecast to soar sixfold in the decade to 2030 and sevenfold by 2050.
An ingot of a rare earth metal used to make components for technology products at a factory in China. The country is the world’s top exporter of rare earth elements, but that may change if deep-sea mining gains traction in nations like Japan.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jun 25, 2024
We’ve got to get deep-sea mining right
Seabed mining could muddy the waters of critical minerals' supply chains by tapping into new sources. But will environmental and legal concerns sink the project?
Professor Yasuhiro Kato of the Graduate School of the University of Tokyo (center right) and Yohei Sasakawa, Chairman of the Nippon Foundation (left), hold manganese nodules, a seafloor resource found in the waters surrounding Minamitorishima, Tokyo, on Friday.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Jun 22, 2024
Over 200 million metric tons of rare metals found near remote Tokyo island
The sea-bottom mineral concentrations abundantly contain rare metals such as cobalt and nickel — both essential for lithium-ion batteries.
China's Premier Li Qiang visits Western Australia's only operating lithium hydroxide plant Tianqi Lithium Energy Australia (TLEA) in Kwinana, on the outskirts of Perth, on June 18.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jun 18, 2024
Chinese premier's Western Australia tour spotlights global race for critical minerals
Western Australia supplies more than half of the world's seaborne iron ore, with China its top customer.
Jars containing rare earth minerals produced near Laverton, northeast of Perth, Australia, in 2019
BUSINESS / Markets
Jun 18, 2024
Brazil sees opportunity in race to loosen China's grip on rare earths
Rare earths projects in Brazil are expected to be a test for how effectively the West can build a new advanced industry almost from scratch.
Globally, the area covered by mines has doubled over the past three years, driven by demand for critical minerals, according to a 2023 study.
BUSINESS / Markets
Mar 25, 2024
For mineral-rich Philippines, green metals rush is a balancing act
The county has the world's fourth-largest copper reserves, fifth-biggest nickel deposits and is also rich in cobalt — which are important for clean energy.
Amid uncertain tariffs, is now the time to buy a new iPhone?
An Apple store in Tokyo's Shibuya Ward in September. Prices for the newest iPhone models start at around ¥100,000 ($700) in Japan.
Japan must correct Trump’s false data for trade talks, says Kono
Former Foreign Minister Taro Kono
Japan wants to 'separate' tariff and security issues. That may be tough.
Japan’s chief tariff negotiator, Ryosei Akazawa, poses with a "Make America Great Again" cap at the White House in Washington on April 16.
Social media helps fuel growing 'sex tourism' in Japan
People walk down a street in the red-light entertainment area of Kabukicho in the Shinjuku district of Tokyo on March 31.
Japan set to fine cyclists on the spot for rule violations from 2026
Under new rules, those who use smartphones while riding a bicycle would be subject to the maximum fine of ¥12,000.
Amid uncertain tariffs, is now the time to buy a new iPhone?
An Apple store in Tokyo's Shibuya Ward in September. Prices for the newest iPhone models start at around ¥100,000 ($700) in Japan.
Built in a flash, Osaka Expo pavilions wrestle with sustainability
Kengo Kuma & Associates oversaw the construction of the Malaysia pavilion, which is encased in interwoven rows of bamboo that appear to ripple.
Japan weighs using U.S. rice imports as tariff negotiation tool with Trump
A restaurant owner pours California-grown Calrose rice into a rice cooker at his restaurant in Tokyo
Is Japan’s parliament ready to welcome more youth to its ranks?
Lower House lawmaker Kai Odake in his Tokyo office on Wednesday
Crow meat, goat tartare: Mauvaise Herbe raises its game
Crow meat, shaped into a ball and attached to a foot of the bird, is one of the peculiar offerings of game at Mauvaise Herbe.

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One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
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