In September 2010,

China cut rare earth sales to Japan. A fishing boat fight near the Senkaku Islands was the excuse. Prices rose tenfold over the following months. Factories in Osaka and Nagoya froze. Toyota slowed its lines.

The squeeze lasted two months. It was a shot across the bow. Most of the world shrugged it off.

Sixteen years later, the shrug is over. Last Thursday the IEA put out its Global Critical Minerals Outlook and a new report on rare earths. The top number: $6.5 trillion in goods made outside China is at risk each year if Beijing's export controls take full effect.

The IEA broke it down by sector. Cars face the most — over $3 trillion rides on rare earth magnets for EV motors and power steering. Chips and transport come next. The U.S. and Europe alone take nearly half the hit — about $1.5 trillion each.

And the gap is worse than it looks. China mines 60% of the world's magnet rare earths. But mining is the easy part. In refining, China's share jumps to 91%. For finished magnets — the parts in every EV, wind turbine, and guided missile — it's 94%.

So even if you dig the ore up somewhere else, you still send it to China to make it useful.

Which is why the IEA wants a new tool: a joint stockpile. Eleven high-risk materials. $9.2 billion upfront. $900 million a year after that.

For magnet rare earth oxides, metals, alloys, and magnets, the yearly cost is $200 million. That's nothing next to $6.5 trillion in exposed value.

The report lays out one more thing worth knowing. Advanced economies committed $65 billion in public finance for critical mineral projects in 2025. That's four times the 2023 level. But most of that went to mining. Refining and magnet-making still lag far behind — and those are the steps China controls most.

The IEA also warned that graphite controls could put another $300 billion at risk. China makes over 90% of processed graphite too. So this isn't just about rare earths — it's about the whole stack of minerals that modern industry runs on.

IEA chief Fatih Birol said it plainly: huge value rests on small amounts of minerals, and one country controls the supply.

The question now is whether the West treats this like fire insurance — pays a little now, before the house burns — or keeps waiting.

Take a look at Elon Musk’s new patent below…

Because it protects a new invention that could rewrite the future of wealth forever.

I’m talking about a radical new form of AI I call “M.A.G.I.”

One so revolutionary that Elon called it an “infinite money glitch.”

Click here to see the details because he believes this is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to create wealth on a scale most people can’t even comprehend.

What’s the upside potential here?

I know this is going to sound crazy…

But Elon is projecting growth of over 7,000,000%.

Let that sink in.

That’s enough to turn $100 into more than $7 million.

This sounds absolutely insane.

But then again… everything Elon has ever done sounded insane at first.

Self-driving cars.

Reusable rockets that land themselves.

Brain chips that let paralyzed people control computers with their minds.

Crazy ideas.

But he turned them into trillion-dollar realities.

So here’s the real question…

Will you watch Elon build another empire from the sidelines…

Or will you finally position yourself to potentially become one of the winners in his next trillion-dollar revolution?

Click here to get the details because I believe Elon will flip the switch on this new invention by the end of this month.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers blocked three China-linked groups — led by Hong Kong's Ying Tak — from voting at Northern Minerals. The three hold 12.96% of the company. They missed a July 2 deadline to sell, so Canberra took their votes instead.

This is the fourth time Australia has moved against Chinese stakes in Northern Minerals since 2023. The company runs the Browns Range project in Western Australia — one of the few sources of dysprosium and terbium outside China.

China's top rare earth firm expects H1 2026 net profit of 1.98 to 2.06 billion yuan — up over 112% from a year ago. Three product lines hit record output: separated rare earths, metals, and advanced materials.

The company also started a pilot line for magnetostrictive parts used in naval sonar and aerospace. That tells you Beijing's biggest rare earth miner is moving past raw materials and into defense-grade parts.

Beijing turned on a new tip line for reporting illegal rare earth exports. Anyone can call a hotline or use an online portal to flag a breach. Cash rewards come with confirmed tips.

The move came weeks after two suspected smugglers from Japan were detained. It shows Beijing is done relying on paperwork to police its export controls.

Fatih Birol, Executive Director, International Energy Agency
July 16, 2026

You won't hear this in the media…

But we are at the inflection point right before a new type of AI called "Accelerated AI" explodes into the mainstream… and unlocks an entire new dimension of exponential growth.

If history is any guide, we could be looking at potential gains of up to 10,000% from here.

If you want to find out more about "Accelerated AI" and why it's about to crack open the next wave of AI profits…

And get the name and ticker of the #1 "Accelerated AI" play everyone should buy right now – for free…

Click here now.

TERBIUM

Terbium goes into magnets that need to work in extreme heat. EV motors, jet engines, and missile systems all run hot — without terbium, the magnets weaken. That's why it costs more than any other magnet rare earth: $4,028.50 per kg, up 103% this year. In 2020 it traded at $668.

China refines nearly all of it. Its export controls have cut supply to a trickle. Buyers outside China now pay around $4,028.50/kg — roughly 25% more than what Chinese factories pay.

The Energy Department picked two projects to pull rare earths from mine waste and scrapped electronics. Both aim to cut the country's reliance on China for these metals. The $134 million comes from the new Office of Critical Minerals and Energy Innovation, which was set up to speed domestic supply.

— U.S. Department of Energy, June 2026

Jack Lifton is 86 and busier than ever. He's one of the few Americans who has refined rare earths by hand. China has thousands of trained workers in this field. The U.S. has fewer than 100.

Bloomberg says the talent gap — not money or geology — is the West's biggest risk.

— Bloomberg, July 9, 2026

Aclara won final green light for its Penco project in Chile's Biobío region after a four-year review. The ionic clay site could yield about 800 tonnes of rare earth oxides per year, with some dysprosium and terbium in the mix. That makes it one of the few new heavy rare earth sources outside Asia.

— Mining.com, June 23, 2026

A first for 2026: all 18 elements tracked by rare-earth-mining.com posted a gain. Germanium led at +27.8%. Dysprosium gained 25.4%. The NdPr alloy benchmark hit a new 2026 high at $133/kg.

— rare-earth-mining.com, July 1, 2026