'Quad' nations launch plan to stop China making critical minerals into Unobtanium
- Reference: 1751520670
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2025/07/03/quad_critical_minerals_initiative/
- Source link:
The four nations comprise a loose bloc called “The Quad” that stages an annual meeting of foreign ministers. This years’ gabfest took place last weekend, and the resulting [1]joint statement said the bloc is “deeply concerned about the abrupt constriction and future reliability of key supply chains, specifically for critical minerals.”
The statement adds the following explanation:
This includes the use of non-market policies and practices for critical minerals, certain derivative products, and mineral processing technology. We underscore the importance of diversified and reliable global supply chains. Reliance on any one country for processing and refining critical minerals and derivative goods production exposes our industries to economic coercion, price manipulation, and supply chain disruptions, which further harms our economic and national security.
The term “critical minerals” describes many substances, among them the rare earths that are essential to the manufacturing of many electronics and batteries.
The “one country” referred to in the joint statement is almost certainly China, which thanks to geological accident is home to many of the world’s critical mineral deposits and thanks to deliberate policy choices has become the dominant refiner of such minerals.
[2]Tesla's Optimus can't roll without rare earth magnets, and Beijing ain't budging yet
[3]Pentagon needs China's rare earths, Beijing just put them behind a permit wall. Oops
[4]First looks at China's Moon rock samples suggest Luna had volcanoes for longer than previously thought
[5]Magnetic personalities at Tokamak Energy form separate division
China’s government knows that the world relies on its rare earth exports and therefore responded to the Trump Administration’s tariff policy with a [6]ban on rare earth exports . While China has since eased that ban, it hurt enough that automakers [7]reportedly wrote to the Trump administration to warn of possible disruptions to production.
Which is why the Quad launched the “Quad Critical Minerals Initiative”. The four nations haven’t detailed what the Initiative will do, or when, but described the effort as “an ambitious expansion of our partnership to strengthen economic security and collective resilience by collaborating to secure and diversify critical minerals supply chain.”
[8]
For what it’s worth, all four Quad members hold substantial deposits of critical minerals but little large-scale mining has begun. Processing capabilities are also scarce. The Register fancies the Initiative will try to kickstart both mining and processing and share the work among Quad members – even as the four countries also try to strike deals with Beijing to keep rare earths flowing. ®
Get our [9]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.state.gov/releases/office-of-the-spokesperson/2025/07/joint-statement-from-the-quad-foreign-ministers-meeting-in-washington/
[2] https://www.theregister.com/2025/04/23/tesla_optimus_china/
[3] https://www.theregister.com/2025/04/15/china_rare_earth_elements_restrictions/
[4] https://www.theregister.com/2024/11/18/chinas_change_6_samples_reveal/
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2024/09/03/tokamak_energy_magnet_spinoff/
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2025/04/04/china_hits_back_at_trump/
[7] https://finance.yahoo.com/news/china-rare-earth-export-curbs-104811123.html
[8] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/publicsector&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aGZUqQsD13qlhmT_QvkxAgAAAAE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[9] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: Zero Sympathy
Indeed.
The West (as it is politically called) is simply reaping the rewards of the century-old mentality that places shareholder return above all else.
Shareholders are going to have to learn that looking at what costs the least is shortsighted and short-term thinking. Instead of shareholder first, we are going to have to find a way to transition to a "survival of the company first", and that transition is going to be very, very hard to accomplish.
Re: Security
"Countries could have taken a long term security of supply approach"
Playing devil's advocate, it must be said that the strategy was also aimed at integrating China into the world's trade networks to foster peaceful relations. That largely worked. Companies cannot be accused of dangerous behavior wrt China when their governments advocate better trade relations and more trade volume.
And I must say, China cannot entirely be faulted for the current animosity. US politics were not exactly de-escalating.
"making critical minerals into Unobtanium"
One of the Vulture subeditors' better efforts. ;)
Unobtanium ~ 235 U 92 ? Hopefully not unless a visit from a B2 is desired.
While a citizen of one of the "quad" I still think it's the height of Trumpanal hypocrisy for our four nations to blame the PRC for our chronic lack of investment in exploration, mining and processing of our own critical minerals resources (also pretty much applies to manufacturing generally.)
The US restrictions on the transfer of advanced technology to the PRC, while arguably wise, always entailed reciprocal restrictions on equally crucial resources that the PRC controlled were inevitable.
To claim otherwise is both incredible and implausible.
Zero Sympathy
On a cost basis people were happy for China to have massive stranglehold on "rare earths" * as the price was right (& mining & refining is often a relative "dirty" & energy expensive process, so avoids those hassles) as it would have been difficult to compete on price (& people are not keen on "dirty" / high energy use industries so avoided that issue).
Countries could have taken a long term security of supply approach & made sure they had mining & refining setup but as that would be seen as wasted money (as cost of the "rare earths" they produced would likely be higher than what the Chinese retailed them at).
Typically there's a big conflict between security of supply & going for cheapest supplier to keep costs down model (see it in lots of areas, not just "rare earths" e.g. in UK, we produce nothing like enough food for our population but rely on "cheap" food from elsewhere)
* Using that as general term, not the chemically accurate usage.