Rare earth minerals, which President Donald Trump hopes to secure from Ukraine as part of a deal for US aid, are strategic metals essential for industries developing computers, batteries, and cutting-edge energy technology.
Trump said Monday he wanted to reach a deal in which Kyiv guaranteed supplies of rare earths in return for US aid, an idea floated by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy last year.
Among the measures announced by Beijing in response to US tariffs on Chinese goods coming into effect is export controls on certain critical minerals, though none of them are rare earths.
For decades, China has made the most of its rare earth reserves by investing massively in refining operations – often without the strict environmental oversight required in western countries.
With names like dysprosium, neodymium and cerium, rare earths are a group of 17 metals, most of them heavy, that are actually abundant in the Earth’s crust across the globe.
