This recording from the Battle of Ideas festival explains why the drive to secure new supplies of these crucial elements, to counter China's near monopoly, is shaping world affairs.
I was on the Battle of Idea, but I missed this particular discussion among all the great discussions.
This one is very informative about the not-so-rare rare earths. It links to the Greenland issue at the moment too, in that Trump doesn't need Greenland even for these rare earths, its plenty of them in the USA itself. The problem is lack of refining capacity outside of China and the fact that in most cases it takes around 30 years to get a new mine up and going.
So Trump's behaviour towards Greenland looks more like a media performance.
I was on the Battle of Idea, but I missed this particular discussion among all the great discussions.
This one is very informative about the not-so-rare rare earths. It links to the Greenland issue at the moment too, in that Trump doesn't need Greenland even for these rare earths, its plenty of them in the USA itself. The problem is lack of refining capacity outside of China and the fact that in most cases it takes around 30 years to get a new mine up and going.
So Trump's behaviour towards Greenland looks more like a media performance.