A rare and precious thing
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MAY / JUN 2025
I hesitate to write about the ongoing tariff wars because( 1) you do not need me to tell you how teeth-grindingly stupid it all is and( 2) the only guaranteed thing is that we have no idea what * grits teeth * President Trump is going to do next and neither has he.
At the time of going to press, however, there were some developments in the crucial field of rare earths, where China has imposed 125 % tariffs on some of the most crucial ones. China has a firm grip on this market. It processes 90 % of all rare earth metals, produces nearly 95 % of all rare earth magnets and supplies almost all of the 7,000 tonnes / year of rare earths the US imports. This has long been recognised as a security issue.
In mid-April, MP Materials, which owns the only scaled rare earths mine in the US, at Mountain Pass in California’ s Mojave Desert, ceased shipments of rare earth concentrates to China, saying that selling them under 125 % tariffs“ is neither commercially rational nor aligned with America’ s national interest”.
The company’ s share price took an immediate hit because China is its largest customer, accounting for 65.5 % of its $ 203.9 million sales last year. Indeed, the Chinese government has an 8 % stake in MP via Shenghe Resources, China’ s largest rare earth mining and refining company, which is a key customer.
However, MP has prepared for a moment like this and some financial analysts believe that the trade war could rebound to its benefit. CEO Jim Litinsky has spoken of unprecedented levels of calls from companies in urgent need of suppliers.“ The sense of urgency, I ' ve never seen anything like it,” he told Forbes.
“ We continue to produce and are stockpiling concentrate while accelerating downstream operations: ramping oxide production, fast-tracking heavy rare earth separation, and bringing magnet production online in Texas,” the company stated, referring to its production of neodymium and praseodymium metals for super-strong magnets at Fort Worth.
This facility is currently at pilot scale and will produce about 1,000 tonnes / year of rare earth metal and magnets, with plans to treble that. MP plans to ship magnets to General Motors later this year and is understood to have contracts with Toyota and Hyundai as well.
On a smaller scale, Chemours and Energy Fuels have formed a strategic alliance to“ enhance US domestic rare earth and critical mineral supply chains”. They will supply heavy mineral sands from Chemours’ mines in Florida and Georgia, and develop Energy Fuels’ new heavy mineral sands projects in Madagascar, Brazil and Australia, which should produce world-scale quantities.
Meanwhile in Europe, Solvay is planning to expand its rare earths processing facility in La Rochelle, France. If the automotive and wind turbine sectors respond strongly enough, it may invest € 100 million to produce at full scale. The plant was one of the largest in the world until the 1980s but declined as China ramped up production.
Solvay aims to supply 30 % of Europe ' s processed rare earths demand for magnets by 2030, focusing initially on neodymium and praseodymium. Production could reach 2,000- 5,000 tonnes / year. However progress will depend on customer decisions and support from the EU, whose Critical Raw Materials Act set targets of 10 % of critical minerals needs being mined, 25 % recycled and 40 % processed domestically by 2030.
“ What ' s happening is an incentive to develop those regional value chains,” said CEO Philippe Kehren at the launch event.“ Now let ' s see if people really want to develop this value chain because if we want to invest further, we will need some comfort from the customers.” There, as ever, is the rub …
Dr Andrew Warmington
EDITOR – SPECIALITY CHEMICALS MAGAZINE
SPECCHEMONLINE
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