Element 17

Merz Invokes Berlin’s Airlift to Argue for E.U. Rare Earth Stockpiles Stored in Brussels

Nov 9, 2026

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5 min read

Merz Invokes Berlin’s Airlift to Argue for E.U. Rare Earth Stockpiles Stored in Brussels

Germany’s chancellor proposed EU-level stockpiles in Brussels on November 5. China’s pause on its October 2025 export rules ends tomorrow, and no extension has been published.

28,000 Parts in 1,400 Weapons Systems Depend on Four Minerals China Controls

Nov 6, 2026

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5 min read

28,000 Parts in 1,400 Weapons Systems Depend on Four Minerals China Controls

Eric Schmidt’s SCSP used AI to scan roughly nine million parts across 3,000 weapons systems. It found more than 300 Virginia-class submarine parts tied to antimony, gallium, germanium, or tungsten.

Global Scandium Output Is About 80 Tonnes a Year. One New Mine Is Approved to Add 60

Nov 5, 2026

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5 min read

Global Scandium Output Is About 80 Tonnes a Year. One New Mine Is Approved to Add 60

Sunrise Energy Metals approved the US$322 million Syerston scandium mine, backed by up to US$400 million in conditional Pentagon-linked debt. First oxide is due in the second half of 2028.

Six Days to November 10, and Beijing Hasn’t Said Whether the Rare Earth Suspension Continues

Nov 4, 2026

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5 min read

Six Days to November 10, and Beijing Hasn’t Said Whether the Rare Earth Suspension Continues

A small Manifold market puts 85% odds on the suspension surviving to November 30. But the April 2025 licences on dysprosium, terbium and yttrium were never suspended, and they stay in force either way.

Dysprosium Costs $212/kg in China. Outside China, It Trades at up to $5,500

Nov 3, 2026

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5 min read

Dysprosium Costs $212/kg in China. Outside China, It Trades at up to $5,500

SMM starts four Rotterdam price assessments on November 4, and Benchmark added 19 new grades, 12 of them for North America.

DTEC Becomes the First Company Through Malaysia’s New Rare Earth Export Door

Nov 2, 2026

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5 min read

DTEC Becomes the First Company Through Malaysia’s New Rare Earth Export Door

A 10% refundable tax offset on refining costs starts July 1, 2027. The EU proposes up to €10 billion for critical raw materials, and Canberra now lists 36 midstream projects. The strategy is coherent. The clock is the problem.

Australia Spent a Century Digging. Now It Wants to Refine.

Oct 30, 2026

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6 min read

Australia Spent a Century Digging. Now It Wants to Refine.

Twelve Days to November 10: China’s 0.1% Rare Earth Rule Has Never Taken Effect

Oct 29, 2026

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5 min read

Twelve Days to November 10: China’s 0.1% Rare Earth Rule Has Never Taken Effect

Any foreign-made product with at least 0.1% Chinese-origin rare earths by value would need a Beijing license. China suspended the rule in 2025. The pause ends November 10, and no extension notice was confirmed in mid-October.

Everybody Has a Plan. Almost Nobody Has a Factory.

Oct 28, 2026

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5 min read

Everybody Has a Plan. Almost Nobody Has a Factory.

GM built a rare earth magnet maker in Indiana, then sold it to China-backed owners. Jack Lifton’s new count of non-China metal producers is still tiny.

GM Co-Invented the NdFeB Magnet in 1983. It Has Cancelled Its Deal With the New U.S. Plant Built to Make Them.

Oct 27, 2026

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5 min read

GM Co-Invented the NdFeB Magnet in 1983. It Has Cancelled Its Deal With the New U.S. Plant Built to Make Them.

Induction, switched-reluctance, and ferrite-magnet motors don’t need Chinese rare earths, but they’re bigger, slower, or less precise than the magnets they’d replace – and China controls roughly 95% of finished permanent magnets.

TSMC Asks Suppliers to Build Motors Without Chinese Rare Earth Magnets

Oct 26, 2026

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5 min read

TSMC Asks Suppliers to Build Motors Without Chinese Rare Earth Magnets

Japan Is Months From Running Out of Yttrium – and It Spent Sixteen Years Preparing for This

Oct 23, 2026

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5 min read

Japan Is Months From Running Out of Yttrium – and It Spent Sixteen Years Preparing for This

Dysprosium, terbium, and yttrium shipments to Japan hit zero in June, per Chinese customs data. One official says the stockpile runway is now measured in months, not years.

Up to 80% of Rare Earth Oxides Sold Outside China May Still Trace Back to Chinese Supply

Oct 22, 2026

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5 min read

Up to 80% of Rare Earth Oxides Sold Outside China May Still Trace Back to Chinese Supply

The Pentagon isn’t asking where the magnet was assembled. It’s asking where the ore was dug – and that answer shapes which contractors face the hardest compliance problem before January 1.

The World Bank Just Raised Its Critical Minerals Target to $19 Billion

Oct 21, 2026

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5 min read

The World Bank Just Raised Its Critical Minerals Target to $19 Billion

From $3.6 billion to $19 billion in five years – the World Bank’s new Metals and Minerals plan is the largest multilateral bet on critical minerals announced to date.

The 2010 Japan Playbook, Sixteen Years Later

Oct 20, 2026

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5 min read

The 2010 Japan Playbook, Sixteen Years Later

No press release, no formal cutoff – just ships that stopped clearing. Beijing ran the same script on Japan over the Senkakus in 2010. The target is different now; the logic is familiar.

Dysprosium at $2,158/kg, up 377% This Year – and the Mine That Could Help Is Gridlocked

Oct 19, 2026

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4 min read

Dysprosium at $2,158/kg, up 377% This Year – and the Mine That Could Help Is Gridlocked

Browns Range is Australia’s richest dysprosium deposit. It cannot advance while a legal standoff over 17% of Northern Minerals’ shares sits unresolved – and Canberra is running out of patience.

The Steenkampskraal Mine Was Found in 1949, Closed in the 1960s, and Cut Its Ribbon This Month

Oct 16, 2026

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5 min read

The Steenkampskraal Mine Was Found in 1949, Closed in the 1960s, and Cut Its Ribbon This Month

EXIM’s chairman does not tour projects his bank has no intention of funding. The Make More in America loan review for Elk Creek is still open.

Six Officials Flew to a Nebraska Cornfield on a Tuesday. Here Is What Brought Them.

Oct 15, 2026

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5 min read

Six Officials Flew to a Nebraska Cornfield on a Tuesday. Here Is What Brought Them.

EXIM’s chairman does not tour projects his bank has no intention of funding. The Make More in America loan review for Elk Creek is still open.

Europe’s €21.1 Billion Critical Minerals Plan Has One Problem: the Money Isn’t Guaranteed

Oct 14, 2026

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5 min read

Europe’s €21.1 Billion Critical Minerals Plan Has One Problem: the Money Isn’t Guaranteed

Brussels has committed roughly €2 billion in public funds. The 93 strategic projects it has now endorsed carry a €21.1 billion price tag. Strategic status, the Commission notes, “facilitates access” to financing – it does not provide it.

The Red Clay Hills of Jiangxi Gave China 90% of Global Rare Earth Supply. The Same Geology Just Turned up in Bahia.

Oct 13, 2026

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5 min read

The Red Clay Hills of Jiangxi Gave China 90% of Global Rare Earth Supply. The Same Geology Just Turned up in Bahia.

IMC’s Block H returned 7,841 ppm in a three-meter interval that starts two meters below the surface – and the zone sits entirely outside the existing 1.1 billion tonne resource.

Mine-to-Magnet Sounds Complete. It Stops in the Middle.

Oct 12, 2026

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5 min read

Mine-to-Magnet Sounds Complete. It Stops in the Middle.

The U.S. made roughly 300 of the 48,000 tonnes of NdFeB magnets it consumed last year. Jack Lifton says the missing link isn’t the mine or the magnet – it’s every motor plant that would have bought them.

A Rare Earth Deposit in Andalusia Sat Untouched for Forty Years. Osmond Resources Thinks It Can Mine It for Free.

Oct 9, 2026

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5 min read

A Rare Earth Deposit in Andalusia Sat Untouched for Forty Years. Osmond Resources Thinks It Can Mine It for Free.

Zircon and titanium revenues more than cover the full mining bill – leaving NdPr, dysprosium, and terbium as pure margin.

Oct 8, 2026

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5 min read

Anderson, 1995. Fort Worth, 2026.

MP Materials shipped its first NdFeB magnets to GM this quarter, closing a loop that began when Magnequench's production lines left Indiana for China three decades ago.

Brazil's Runoff Is Eighteen Days Away. Rare Earths Are What It's Really About.

Oct 7, 2026

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5 min read

Brazil's Runoff Is Eighteen Days Away. Rare Earths Are What It's Really About.

Seventy-three years after Vargas nationalized oil, whoever wins on October 25 will set the terms for the Western world's largest new rare earth source.

Lynas Pays A$968 Million for the Largest Ionic Clay Rare Earth Deposit Outside China

Oct 6, 2026

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5 min read

Lynas Pays A$968 Million for the Largest Ionic Clay Rare Earth Deposit Outside China

The Caldeira project in Minas Gerais holds an estimated 41,000 tonnes of DyTb oxides locked in ionic clay — the same geology that gives China its grip on heavy rare earths.

Element 17

Merz Invokes Berlin’s Airlift to Argue for E.U. Rare Earth Stockpiles Stored in Brussels

28,000 Parts in 1,400 Weapons Systems Depend on Four Minerals China Controls

Global Scandium Output Is About 80 Tonnes a Year. One New Mine Is Approved to Add 60

Six Days to November 10, and Beijing Hasn’t Said Whether the Rare Earth Suspension Continues

Dysprosium Costs $212/kg in China. Outside China, It Trades at up to $5,500

DTEC Becomes the First Company Through Malaysia’s New Rare Earth Export Door

Australia Spent a Century Digging. Now It Wants to Refine.

Twelve Days to November 10: China’s 0.1% Rare Earth Rule Has Never Taken Effect

Everybody Has a Plan. Almost Nobody Has a Factory.

GM Co-Invented the NdFeB Magnet in 1983. It Has Cancelled Its Deal With the New U.S. Plant Built to Make Them.

TSMC Asks Suppliers to Build Motors Without Chinese Rare Earth Magnets

Japan Is Months From Running Out of Yttrium – and It Spent Sixteen Years Preparing for This

Up to 80% of Rare Earth Oxides Sold Outside China May Still Trace Back to Chinese Supply

The World Bank Just Raised Its Critical Minerals Target to $19 Billion

The 2010 Japan Playbook, Sixteen Years Later

Dysprosium at $2,158/kg, up 377% This Year – and the Mine That Could Help Is Gridlocked

The Steenkampskraal Mine Was Found in 1949, Closed in the 1960s, and Cut Its Ribbon This Month

Six Officials Flew to a Nebraska Cornfield on a Tuesday. Here Is What Brought Them.

Europe’s €21.1 Billion Critical Minerals Plan Has One Problem: the Money Isn’t Guaranteed

The Red Clay Hills of Jiangxi Gave China 90% of Global Rare Earth Supply. The Same Geology Just Turned up in Bahia.

Mine-to-Magnet Sounds Complete. It Stops in the Middle.

A Rare Earth Deposit in Andalusia Sat Untouched for Forty Years. Osmond Resources Thinks It Can Mine It for Free.

Anderson, 1995. Fort Worth, 2026.

Brazil's Runoff Is Eighteen Days Away. Rare Earths Are What It's Really About.

Lynas Pays A$968 Million for the Largest Ionic Clay Rare Earth Deposit Outside China

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