Aug 21, 2026
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5 min read
American Rare Earths and Novex signed an MoU this week to bring that conversion step home — but no commercial facility yet exists, and a $456 million EXIM letter of interest is not a kilogram of metal.
Aug 20, 2026
Holmium is up 25% in China since June. Ytterbium has surged roughly 75%. Buyers are stockpiling months before the deadline arrives.
Aug 19, 2026
Section 232 raised a wall around the finished product. The hole runs through the parts — NdFeB magnets, 90% Chinese-made, aren't covered.
Aug 18, 2026
REalloys would become the first private company to process minerals inside an active U.S. military base — using a legal tool originally designed for base housing and utilities.
Aug 17, 2026
Every gram of scandium ever sold came as a byproduct of mining something else. The $400 million Pentagon loan is a bet that a dedicated mine can finally break that loop
Aug 14, 2026
6 min read
Workers pay brokers roughly $290 just for the chance to mine in these pits. There's no tracing system for rare earths the way there is for cobalt or tin — so once the ore crosses into China, no one downstream can tell where it came from.
Aug 12, 2026
Indonesia banned nickel ore exports in 2020 and tripled its export revenue in three years. Malaysia is weighing the same trade for rare earths — but with China's November 10 deadline closing in, it may not have three years to wait.
Aug 11, 2026
4 min read
MP Materials handed Trump a pair of magnets. The room held Rio Tinto, BHP, and Freeport. The agenda: $3 billion in new commitments and a 30-year Chinese lead to close.
Aug 10, 2026
In 2011, Beijing's own magnet makers buckled under prices China had pushed too high — and it just happened again in Zhejiang. We've been tracking the countdown to November 10 since our first issue on this; this is the clearest sign yet of what's at stake if the truce doesn't hold.
Aug 7, 2026
IMC Rare Earths raised $20 million and started trading on NYSE American on July 29. Its Brazilian deposit sits on the same kind of clay that built China's dysprosium and terbium monopoly in the first place.
Aug 5, 2026
US, Australia, France, and India are all asking. Malaysia is willing to answer — but only for buyers who bring technology transfer and investment, not just cash.
Aug 4, 2026
Two executive orders in ten days — one ends waivers for defense firms buying Chinese minerals, the other locks down the scrap that was quietly leaving the country.
