Georgia WilliamsJan. 20, 2026 01:55PM PSTAs US-China tensions rise, gallium and rare earths are increasingly becoming battlegrounds for tech dominance. Can innovation and local mining break China’s grip? pla2na / Adobe Stock As Washington accelerates efforts to secure key supply chains, rare earths and critical minerals like gallium have emerged as strategic priorities for US industry and national security. China has long used its dominance over strategic metals to apply pressure to the US, ramping up efforts in recent years. Beijing first tightened export licenses on gallium ...

Heidi VellaTue, January 13, 2026 at 9:02 PM GMT+ Rare earth elements (REEs) – a group of 17 metals economically found in bastnaesite, monazite, loparite and lateritic ion-adsorption clays – featured heavily in trade relations during the first year of Donald Trumps’ second term as US president. Soon after he was sworn in last January, the minerals, which are crucial to the US economy and defence, but of which roughly 70% is mined and 90% processed in China, took centre stage in an ongoing trade war between the countries, ultimately restricting the US’ access to its supply and related technology. While experts and industry have been raising the alarm about the US’– and more broadly, the West’s – overreliance on China’s REEs for decades, last year’s developments appeared to spur renewed vigour in the US government’s intentions to counter China’s dominance of the market. In a ...

US Critical Materials’ chief geologist, Peter Mejstrick, takes a dip measure of exposed carbonatite, a primary source of rare earth elements essential to several technologies. Source: US Critical Materials Corp. By Liubov Georges  US Critical Materials said its Sheep Creek deposit is the richest deposit of rare earths and gallium in North America. Developing US processing technology is expected to be more environmentally friendly than traditional methods. The company is in discussions with the US government about defense contracts and mineral reserve strategies. US Critical Materials Corp., a privately owned exploration company, ...

https://uscriticalmaterials.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/rare-earth-scrippnews.mp4 Rare earth elements are difficult to mine, extract and process, but are extremely valuable. (Scripps News) By: Maya Rodriguez , Cameron Couvillion, Eric Koraganie, Nick RefuerzoPosted 1:23 AM, Sep 18, 2025 and last updated 4:19 AM, Sep 18, 2025 Deep below the surface of the Earth, in a Montana mine that once yielded gold, silver, lead and zinc, lies the next frontier of globally coveted minerals. “So how valuable is this?” asked Scripps News Group’s Global Affairs Correspondent Maya Rodriguez. “Billions. It’s worth billions,” said Harvey ...

The billion-dollar effort aims to speed up mineral processing and battery recycling in the US Illustration: Brittany Holloway-Brown, Photos: Adobe Stock ByTricia Crimmins   August 21, 2025   • less than 3 min read In the future, “Made in America” may not mean higher prices, at least for batteries. Earlier this month, the Department of Energy announced nearly $1 billion in funding opportunities for critical mineral mining and processing companies, in an effort to bring the supply chain back to the United States and no longer rely “on foreign actors to supply and ...

Drill rig at Tanbreez project. Credit: Critical Metals Corp. Blair McBride – The Northern Miner | August 18, 2025 | 8:29 am  Critical Metals (Nasdaq: CRML) has returned results as thick as 65 metres grading 0.55% total rare earth oxides (TREO) from surface at Tanbreez, one of the largest undeveloped heavy rare earth deposits outside China. That result in hole DDH-C-24 at the Fjord deposit in southern Greenland is top-tier and important for showing continuity in a bulk target that could support long-life production. The Tanbreez hole included 25.5% heavy ...