Now That China Is No Longer Sending 7 Incredibly Important Heavy Rare Earth Minerals To The U.S., What Will Happen To Our Economy?

Michael Snyder is the publisher of , The American Dream Blog and The Truth

Our current way of life could not continue without rare earth minerals.  Every single day of our lives, all of us depend on technology that was built using rare earth minerals.  In fact, the device that you are reading this article on right now probably contains rare earth minerals.  Ultimately, rare earth minerals aren’t actually that rare, but processing those minerals is extremely complex, and at this point the vast majority of that processing is done in China.  Efforts are already underway to create complete rare earth supply chains here in the United States, but new processing facilities will not start coming online until 2027 at the earliest.  So what will happen to our economy between now and then?

I asked Google AI about the importance of rare earth minerals, and this is what I was told…

Rare earth minerals are highly important due to their diverse and crucial applications in modern technology, energy, and defense. They are essential for manufacturing a wide range of products, from electronic devices and electric vehicles to wind turbines and military equipment. Their unique properties, including magnetic and luminous qualities, make them indispensable for many modern technologies.

All of that is accurate.

We simply do not have anything else that can replace these exceedingly crucial minerals.

According to Google AI, rare earth minerals are particularly important in the production of smartphones and computers…

Rare earth elements are used in various components of modern technology, including screens for smartphones and computers, motors for computer drives, and batteries for hybrid and electric cars.

The Chinese government thinks that it is lowering the boom on us by banning the export of 7 “heavy” rare earth minerals that are “processed exclusively in the Asian power”…

China has stopped shipping some heavy rare earth metals and magnets critical to US production of everything from cellphones to fighter jets as Beijing’s trade war with Washington simmers, leaving American industry in a bind.

Effective April 3, China is no longer exporting seven heavy rare earth metals processed exclusively in the Asian power, as well as heavy rare earth magnets — of which about 90% of the world’s supply are also synthesized on Beijing’s territory.

The good news is that the export of all 17 rare earth minerals is not banned.  It is just 7 “heavy” rare earth minerals that have been restricted, and China “has a virtual monopoly on supplying all seven of them”…

The supply and demand curves for all 17 of the rare earths are not equal. China’s new trade restrictions focus on seven of them: samarium, gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium, lutetium, scandium, and yttrium.

These are mostly “heavy” rare earth elements (HREEs), which means they are useful in high-temperature magnets — the type of magnet used extensively in electric vehicle (EV) motors, wind turbines, and military electronic systems.

China has a virtual monopoly on supplying all seven of them.

For the moment, most manufacturers still have existing inventories of rare earth minerals that they can use.

But it is just a matter of time before those existing inventories start running out.

An official that worked in President Trump’s first administration is warning that we could be facing a lot of economic pain…

The export halt applies to all countries, but access to elements like dysprosium and yttrium is critical to US industry — especially in the tech, electric vehicle, aircraft and defense sectors, according to Drew Horn, who served as the top US official on strategic minerals and energy supply chain development in President Trump’s first administration

“Rare earths are in everything,” he told The Post Monday, singling out “the EV and auto space … [and] everything from cellphones, defense key components, [and] space travel.”

“China,” Horn added, “has essentially created an all-powerful monopoly with them.”

Needless to say, we should be processing rare earth minerals here in the United States.

A plan to do that was finally developed in 2024, but we are being told that new processing facilities “will not be online until 2027 at the earliest”…

DOD devised a plan in 2024 for building a domestic “mine to magnet” supply chain for rare earths, and has committed nearly half a billion dollars in funding to that project, but it will not be online until 2027 at the earliest.

In order to avoid a nightmare scenario, we need the trade war with China to end.

Unfortunately, that is not likely to happen any time soon.

Neither side intends to back down, and a top Chinese official has publicly stated that China should let “those peasants in the United States wail in front of 5,000 years of Chinese civilisation”…

Beijing has fired an extraordinary new broadside at America amid growing trade war anger – with a senior Chinese official declaring ‘Let those peasants in the United States wail in front of 5,000 years of Chinese civilisation’.

Xia Baolong, a top Chinese official who oversees Hong Kong affairs, branded the US tariffs as ‘extremely shameless’ and warned that bullying has never worked on Chinese people in a televised speech today.

The extremely aggressive comments that Chinese officials have been making lately are very unusual.

Normally, the Chinese are much more diplomatic.

In another move, China has also decided to no longer buy any jets from Boeing…

China has ordered its airlines not to take further deliveries of Boeing jets in response to the US decision to impose 145 per cent tariffs on Chinese goods, Bloomberg News reported on Tuesday (Apr 15), citing people familiar with the matter.

Shares of Boeing – which considers China one of its biggest growth markets and where rival Airbus holds a dominant position – were down 0.5 per cent in midday trading.

Over the next few years, Chinese airlines were supposed to take delivery of dozens of new Boeing jets…

China’s top three airlines – Air China, China Eastern Airlines and China Southern Airlines – had planned to take delivery of 45, 53 and 81 Boeing planes, respectively, between 2025 and 2027.

This isn’t going to have too much of an impact on Boeing, but it just shows that the Chinese are starting to dig in for the long haul.

My concern is that this trade war could eventually become a shooting war.

We know that both sides have already been conducting cyberattacks on one another.  In fact, the Chinese are now publicly accusing the NSA of conducting cyberattacks inside China just two months ago…

China accused the United States National Security Agency (NSA) on Tuesday of launching “advanced” cyberattacks during the Asian Winter Games in February, targeting essential industries.

Police in the northeastern city of Harbin said three alleged NSA agents to a wanted list and also accused the University of California and Virginia Tech of being involved in the attacks after carrying out investigations, according to a report by state news agency Xinhua on Tuesday.

The NSA agents were identified by Xinhua as Katheryn A. Wilson, Robert J. Snelling and Stephen W. Johnson. The three were also found to have “repeatedly carried out cyber attacks on China’s critical information infrastructure and participated in cyber attacks on Huawei and other enterprises.”

Of course the Chinese have been conducting cyberattacks against U.S. targets over and over again.

I want to be very clear about something.

A cyberattack is an act of war.

So the fact that both sides are already conducting cyberattacks should deeply concern all of us.

Hopefully cooler heads will prevail, because if we stay on the path that we are currently on this story is not going to end well.

Michael’s new book entitled “Why” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

About the Author: Michael Snyder’s new book entitled “Why” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com. He has also written eight other books that are available on Amazon.com including “Chaos”, “End Times”, “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”.  When you purchase any of Michael’s books you help to support the work that he is doing.  You can also get his articles by email as soon as he publishes them by subscribing to his Substack newsletter.  Michael has published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and he always freely and happily allows others to republish those articles on their own websites.  These are such troubled times, and people need hope.  John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  If you have not already done so, we strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today.

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