{"id":325321,"date":"2026-03-25T08:28:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-25T08:28:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=325321"},"modified":"2026-03-27T08:25:52","modified_gmt":"2026-03-27T08:25:52","slug":"us-has-two-months-of-rare-earth-supplies-left-scmp-reports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=325321","title":{"rendered":"US has two months of rare earth supplies left, SCMP reports"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mining.com \u2013 March 10, 2026<\/strong><\/h1>\n

The United States has roughly two months of rare earth supplies available for military use, a constraint that could influence how long Washington can sustain strikes on Iran, the South China Morning Post reported<\/em> on Tuesday<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Rare earth elements \u2014 used in missile guidance systems, fighter jets and radar technologies \u2014 are essential components in modern defence systems, leaving the US vulnerable to supply disruptions from top producer China.<\/p>\n

Washington\u2019s dependence on Chinese supply has become a strategic concern as tensions escalate in the Middle East. Analysts told SCM<\/em>P that Beijing could gain indirect leverage over the duration and cost of US military operations if exports or supply chains were restricted.<\/p>\n

The report comes ahead of US President Donald Trump\u2019s scheduled trip to China later this month \u2014 his first since 2017.<\/p>\n

Analysts cited by the Chinese-owned paper suggest Beijing may have less urgency than Washington to reach an agreement on rare earth trade, given the current state of affairs in the Middle East.<\/p>\n

Marina Zhang, an associate professor at the University of Technology Sydney\u2019s Australia-China Relations Institute, told SCMP <\/em>that China\u2019s control of rare earth supply chains gives it \u201csignificant indirect leverage over the duration and cost of potential conflicts.\u201d<\/p>\n

The vulnerability comes as Western governments race to diversify rare earth supply chains. The Trump administration recently launched a $12 billion initiative aimed at stockpiling minerals like rare earths, and later marshaled allies to create a trade bloc.<\/p>\n

Despite such efforts, new projects outside China \u2014 which controls over half of the world\u2019s mine supply and nearly all of the mineral processing \u2014 are expected to come online too slowly to prevent shortages, potentially shifting pricing power toward a small number of producers.<\/p>\n

Global reliance on Chinese supply was highlighted last year when Beijing imposed export controls on its rare earths, which left Western manufacturers scrambling for supplies to meet production deadlines.<\/p>\n

Recently, Beijing signalled its intention to further consolidate its leadership in the sector. Under its 15th Five-Year Plan, the Chinese government plans to strengthen development of its rare earth industry between 2026 and 2030 and improve export control systems governing the minerals.<\/p>\n

Those policies could deepen Beijing\u2019s influence over global supply chains for materials critical to defence technologies, electronics and clean energy systems, analysts said.<\/p>\n

According to the USGS, China is the largest supplier of many US critical minerals<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Source\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This report is over two old, so the U.S. has little more than six weeks supply left. This is crucial because rare earth elements are a key component in missile guidance systems, fighter jets and radars. In other words, without rare earth supplies the U.S. war machine could soon grind to a halt.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":325323,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[19,66],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-325321","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-Behind_The_News","category-Economics"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325321","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=325321"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325321\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":325322,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325321\/revisions\/325322"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/325323"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=325321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=325321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=325321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}