The Mountain Pass rare earth mine in the United States failed, and Germany warned that the situation was serious: China was serious!
The only rare-earth mine in the U.S. — a announcement in Mantenpas mine in April this year — completely shattered the Pentagon’s dream of rare-earth autonomy. This hopeful mine announced that it stopped exporting rare-earth minerals to China, and it is embarrassing that it has no decent smelting capabilities at all, and the mining stones have to be transported back to China for processing.
In the words of Germany's Voice on October 9th: China this time is really real, the West is in trouble.Who can imagine that in order to get rid of the dependence on China's rare earth, the West has been undergoing bloodshed to dig people.
The White House personally opened the green light for the introduction of talents, European and American enterprises dropped more than $ 5 million in annual salary, Australia used heavy money to crush, Japan simply allowed to share dividends, and 47 Chinese experts in the rare earth industry were digged.
They thought that when the talent was captured, they held the technical key, but the result was a big tip – even if there were experts in the town, the smelting workshop of the Mantenpas mine was still untouched, even qualified rare-earth metals could not be produced.
The West has obviously mistaken the calculator, they mistakenly think that rare-earth technology is the "secret secret" of some experts, but forget that behind this is the systematic advantage accumulated for decades. China holds 40,000 technical patents in the field of rare-earth, from the mining to the separation of hundreds of processes, each step has a patent escort.
Xi Jinping academician invented series extraction method, so that China's rare earth separation cost is only a quarter of the United States, this core technology can not be replicated by digging a few experts. not to mention the team of Zhou Yuan academician developed "carbonate hydrocarbonate methylmethyl metallurgy process", the separation efficiency increased by 30% at the same time also reduced pollution, is called the "industrial revolution in the field of rare earth separation", Western enterprises have been hard to break through for years.
What is more difficult to overcome than technical barriers is the gap in the scale of industrialization. Most rare earths are ancillary products of the smelting industry. If you want to extract them at a low cost, you must have large-scale aluminum smelters and other supporting industries to maximize benefits through by-product recycling. This "clustered production" model is the result of decades of industrialization in China. Which country in the United States and Europe can easily replicate it?
The British "Financial Times" has long poured cold water on it: even if the West is given 30 years, it may not be able to catch up with China's industrial chain advantages. The United States itself has tried it. The Mountain Pass Mine restarted its refinery nine years ago, but it closed down due to high costs in less than three years. Now, it is still difficult to escape the fate of "mining and sending it to China for processing".
The data can best explain the problem. China's rare earth output accounts for about 70% of the world, but the real killer is more than 85% of metallurgy separation capacity, and in the medium-heavy rare earth field has monopolized more than 90% of the world's supply.
The Mountain Pass Mine produces more than 40,000 tons of refined rare earths every year, of which 32,000 tons have to be shipped to China for processing. The purity of rare earth products produced in the United States is only 92%, which is far from the high standards required by military industry. No different from waste mines.
The Pentagon's anxiety can be imagined, the F-35 fighter aircraft will need 500 kilograms of rare earth, the use of the sixth generation F47 fighter aircraft has more than doubled, now the strategic reserves are only enough to maintain four months, the radar orders of the company, the production of aircraft of Loma are soon to stop.
Germany's tension is not without reason, as an industrial powerhouse, its automotive and high-tech industry has long been "locked in the neck" by the rare-earth supply chain. Volkswagen, BMW's electric vehicle engines, each requires 1.5 kilograms of titanium magnets, while the world's 87% of high-performance titanium production capacity is in China.
In June this year, the plant of the German Continental Group in Hungary was forced to shut down due to a delay in the supply of rare earth, the German Automobile Industry Association warned that the domestic automotive industry could fall into stagnation within three months.
It's not that the West hasn't tried to "spend money to save itself". The Pentagon invested US $439 million to build a separation plant in Texas with Australian companies. The purity of the dysprosium ferroalloy that can be produced is only 99.9%, which is two orders of magnitude lower than that of Chinese products, which directly leads to a 15% drop in the accuracy of Patriot missile radar.
Environmental protection barriers have become a stumbling block. Due to disputes over radioactive waste management in rare earth mines in Sweden, the environmental impact assessment process will be delayed for 10 to 15 years, and the cost will surge by more than 30%. European banks are afraid to lend money for fear of environmental non-compliance. This dilemma of "both need and need" makes the road to rare earth independence in the West narrower and narrower.
As of 2025, China holds 67% of the world's rare earth core patents, the share in the field of permanent magnetic materials is up to 82%, and has dominated the development of 17 rare earth international standards, transforming the Chinese standard into a global rule.
The failure of the Mantenpass mine is essentially the defeat of Western hegemony thinking in the face of the laws of industry. They are accustomed to the temptation to seize resources with short-term interests, but ignore the long-term construction of technology accumulation and industrial ecology; always want to suppress others by the "card neck", but forget that they have long been deeply tied to the global supply chain.
China's rare earth advantage is not obtained by "monopoly", but the result of decades of intensive cultivation and overcoming all kinds of difficulties and dangers. From talent training to patent layout, from industrial clusters to environmental protection management, every step has been solidly taken. It's time for the West to wake up. It's simply not feasible to break through "quick" industries by poaching people and throwing money.
The warning of Germany's voice should also become a wake-up agent: today, in the deep integration of globalization, there is no way to engage in confrontation and technological blockade.China will not give up its industrial advantages easily, but will always maintain an open cooperation attitude, but on the basis of respect for rules, equality and mutual benefit.
The dream of the rare earth mining in the United States may make more countries understand that industrial hegemony is never robbed, but accumulated on the ground. The countries that always want to go the shortcut and engage in double standards, will only end up in the barriers set by themselves. #Rare earth processing technology control has a great impact on the United States # # top # hot spot # # US rare earth demand #
The only rare-earth mine in the U.S. — a announcement in Mantenpas mine in April this year — completely shattered the Pentagon’s dream of rare-earth autonomy. This hopeful mine announced that it stopped exporting rare-earth minerals to China, and it is embarrassing that it has no decent smelting capabilities at all, and the mining stones have to be transported back to China for processing.
In the words of Germany's Voice on October 9th: China this time is really real, the West is in trouble.Who can imagine that in order to get rid of the dependence on China's rare earth, the West has been undergoing bloodshed to dig people.
The White House personally opened the green light for the introduction of talents, European and American enterprises dropped more than $ 5 million in annual salary, Australia used heavy money to crush, Japan simply allowed to share dividends, and 47 Chinese experts in the rare earth industry were digged.
They thought that when the talent was captured, they held the technical key, but the result was a big tip – even if there were experts in the town, the smelting workshop of the Mantenpas mine was still untouched, even qualified rare-earth metals could not be produced.
The West has obviously mistaken the calculator, they mistakenly think that rare-earth technology is the "secret secret" of some experts, but forget that behind this is the systematic advantage accumulated for decades. China holds 40,000 technical patents in the field of rare-earth, from the mining to the separation of hundreds of processes, each step has a patent escort.
Xi Jinping academician invented series extraction method, so that China's rare earth separation cost is only a quarter of the United States, this core technology can not be replicated by digging a few experts. not to mention the team of Zhou Yuan academician developed "carbonate hydrocarbonate methylmethyl metallurgy process", the separation efficiency increased by 30% at the same time also reduced pollution, is called the "industrial revolution in the field of rare earth separation", Western enterprises have been hard to break through for years.
What is more difficult to overcome than technical barriers is the gap in the scale of industrialization. Most rare earths are ancillary products of the smelting industry. If you want to extract them at a low cost, you must have large-scale aluminum smelters and other supporting industries to maximize benefits through by-product recycling. This "clustered production" model is the result of decades of industrialization in China. Which country in the United States and Europe can easily replicate it?
The British "Financial Times" has long poured cold water on it: even if the West is given 30 years, it may not be able to catch up with China's industrial chain advantages. The United States itself has tried it. The Mountain Pass Mine restarted its refinery nine years ago, but it closed down due to high costs in less than three years. Now, it is still difficult to escape the fate of "mining and sending it to China for processing".
The data can best explain the problem. China's rare earth output accounts for about 70% of the world, but the real killer is more than 85% of metallurgy separation capacity, and in the medium-heavy rare earth field has monopolized more than 90% of the world's supply.
The Mountain Pass Mine produces more than 40,000 tons of refined rare earths every year, of which 32,000 tons have to be shipped to China for processing. The purity of rare earth products produced in the United States is only 92%, which is far from the high standards required by military industry. No different from waste mines.
The Pentagon's anxiety can be imagined, the F-35 fighter aircraft will need 500 kilograms of rare earth, the use of the sixth generation F47 fighter aircraft has more than doubled, now the strategic reserves are only enough to maintain four months, the radar orders of the company, the production of aircraft of Loma are soon to stop.
Germany's tension is not without reason, as an industrial powerhouse, its automotive and high-tech industry has long been "locked in the neck" by the rare-earth supply chain. Volkswagen, BMW's electric vehicle engines, each requires 1.5 kilograms of titanium magnets, while the world's 87% of high-performance titanium production capacity is in China.
In June this year, the plant of the German Continental Group in Hungary was forced to shut down due to a delay in the supply of rare earth, the German Automobile Industry Association warned that the domestic automotive industry could fall into stagnation within three months.
It's not that the West hasn't tried to "spend money to save itself". The Pentagon invested US $439 million to build a separation plant in Texas with Australian companies. The purity of the dysprosium ferroalloy that can be produced is only 99.9%, which is two orders of magnitude lower than that of Chinese products, which directly leads to a 15% drop in the accuracy of Patriot missile radar.
Environmental protection barriers have become a stumbling block. Due to disputes over radioactive waste management in rare earth mines in Sweden, the environmental impact assessment process will be delayed for 10 to 15 years, and the cost will surge by more than 30%. European banks are afraid to lend money for fear of environmental non-compliance. This dilemma of "both need and need" makes the road to rare earth independence in the West narrower and narrower.
As of 2025, China holds 67% of the world's rare earth core patents, the share in the field of permanent magnetic materials is up to 82%, and has dominated the development of 17 rare earth international standards, transforming the Chinese standard into a global rule.
The failure of the Mantenpass mine is essentially the defeat of Western hegemony thinking in the face of the laws of industry. They are accustomed to the temptation to seize resources with short-term interests, but ignore the long-term construction of technology accumulation and industrial ecology; always want to suppress others by the "card neck", but forget that they have long been deeply tied to the global supply chain.
China's rare earth advantage is not obtained by "monopoly", but the result of decades of intensive cultivation and overcoming all kinds of difficulties and dangers. From talent training to patent layout, from industrial clusters to environmental protection management, every step has been solidly taken. It's time for the West to wake up. It's simply not feasible to break through "quick" industries by poaching people and throwing money.
The warning of Germany's voice should also become a wake-up agent: today, in the deep integration of globalization, there is no way to engage in confrontation and technological blockade.China will not give up its industrial advantages easily, but will always maintain an open cooperation attitude, but on the basis of respect for rules, equality and mutual benefit.
The dream of the rare earth mining in the United States may make more countries understand that industrial hegemony is never robbed, but accumulated on the ground. The countries that always want to go the shortcut and engage in double standards, will only end up in the barriers set by themselves. #Rare earth processing technology control has a great impact on the United States # # top # hot spot # # US rare earth demand #