Heavy news came from the US Department of Defense! Only five days after China implemented rare earth control, the Pentagon urgently purchased 3,000 tons of "war metals". Who would have expected that only five days after the introduction of China's new rare earth control regulations, the United States could no longer hold back.
Recently, the U.S. Department of Defense has come up with heavy news that just five days after China's implementation of new rules on rare earth control, the Pentagon has urgently announced the procurement of 3,000 tons of rare earth known as war metals, this hasty move has completely exposed the deep anxiety of the United States in the key mineral fields.
At present, the United States is facing the double shock of tariff swings and rare earth controls, and is in a difficult situation, the Trump administration suddenly promised to impose 100% tariffs on Chinese goods at the beginning of the month.
As soon as the news came out, the U.S. stock market fluctuated instantly. The S&P 500 index fell by more than 2% in a single day, and market panic spread.
Subsequently, the U.S. Treasury Secretary urgently came forward to ease the situation, claiming that there would be no tax increase before November 1st, but there was no clear statement on whether to increase taxes and which specific commodities to be levied.
This kind of policy is unresolved, which makes American companies miserable. Car companies bear the brunt and repeatedly calculate costs. If tariffs are implemented, the cost of each car will increase by $1,200, and eventually this burden will be passed on to consumers.
Chip factories are also attacked from both sides. On the one hand, they have to deal with the technical restriction policies of the United States, and on the other hand, they are also worried about the risk of supply chain rupture. Rare earths are the lifeblood of these two industries to maintain production.
According to data from the U.S. Geological Survey, the United States relies extremely heavily on key minerals. More than 90% of rare earths, antimony, indium, etc. rely on imports, of which 100% need to be imported from abroad.
And 80% of the processing link depends on China, policy uncertainty, so that a quarter of the U.S. manufacturing enterprises dare not easily invest in the U.S.-China supply chain related long-term projects, industry development has fallen into stagnation.
In the face of U.S. anxiety, China's implementation of rare earth control is not a confession of external misunderstanding, but a compliance-oriented standard management.
On October 9, the Ministry of Commerce of China issued an announcement that control focuses on safety and compliance, not only adding key rare-earth elements such as uranium, uranium, but also incorporating rare-earth processing equipment into the scope of control.
Even overseas rare earth products, superhard materials, lithium battery anode materials, etc. containing more than 0.1% Chinese ingredients are also under control.
This measure is in line with the conventional management logic of dual-use resources in countries around the world. Its core purpose is to protect China's own resource security and avoid over-exploitation and waste of rare earth resources.
Judging from the actual market reaction, domestic rare earth companies responded quickly. Northern Rare Earth raised the price of rare earth concentrate by 37% in the fourth quarter. Since the beginning of last year, the cumulative increase has been nearly 60%.
In the first three quarters, the profit grew by 1.6 times, and the order was placed in the first quarter of 2026, and the entire market showed a positive cycle of price stability and quantity control.
In order to alleviate the rare earth shortage crisis, the Pentagon launched a $1 billion mine purchase plan, which seems to be a breakthrough, but in fact it is just an emergency fire fighting.
The plan, led by the Defense Logistics Agency, has a clear allocation of funds: $5 billion for uranium procurement, $2.4 billion for uranium procurement from U.S. Uranium Corporation (USAC), and $100 million for uranium procurement.
$45 million in cooperation with companies such as Rilot for uranium procurement, followed by plans to supplement the procurement of uranium, uranium, uranium, but in detail, this plan is vulnerable.
In terms of purchases, the planned 3,000 tons of uranium accounted for only 12.5 percent of U.S. annual consumption, which is three times USAC’s year-round production capacity.
Although 222 tons of uranium is close to 250 tons of total annual consumption in the United States, supply chain stability is difficult to guarantee, and more importantly, the United States has not escaped from external dependence, USAC itself has no domestic minefields.
The raw materials need to be collected from six countries such as Canada, Mexico and Peru, and the processing capacity is very weak, only to turn the dependent object from China to other countries, the fundamental problem has not been solved.
At the same time, tariff policies may further push up procurement costs. However, the United States lacks core rare earth processing capabilities. Even if it hoards raw materials, it cannot be converted into usable products. Compared with my country's advantage of controlling 92% of the world's rare earth processing capacity, the gap is very significant.
This game around rare earth, the core is the competition between the advantages of the industrial chain and the cooperation logic, China's irreplaceability is reflected in having a complete rare earth industry chain from mining to manufacturing permanent magnets.
If the United States wants to replicate such an industrial chain, it will take at least five to eight years, before China implemented export controls on uranium, international uranium prices rose by 40% in three months, and Western enterprises have stored goods.
This phenomenon fully confirms that China's key position in the industrial chain is difficult to bypass. On the other hand, the United States is caught in a double-standard dilemma. It has imposed export controls on 35 key minerals, but has criticized my country's compliance management.
Its $1 billion plan to buy mines and unwavering tariff policies have failed to address the core problems of lack of processing capacity and supply chain decentralization.
At a time when the global industrial chain is deeply bound, my country's rare earth control is not a weaponized means, but the maintenance of resource security and global trade rules. The United States can only put aside its prejudice and recognize my country's position in the rare earth industry chain.
Only by establishing a reasonable trade mechanism through consultation can the stability of the supply chain be truly achieved, instead of relying on short-term emergency procurement and policy pressure.
Pentagon plans to purchase $1 billion in key minerals to accelerate national strategic reserves
Recently, the U.S. Department of Defense has come up with heavy news that just five days after China's implementation of new rules on rare earth control, the Pentagon has urgently announced the procurement of 3,000 tons of rare earth known as war metals, this hasty move has completely exposed the deep anxiety of the United States in the key mineral fields.
At present, the United States is facing the double shock of tariff swings and rare earth controls, and is in a difficult situation, the Trump administration suddenly promised to impose 100% tariffs on Chinese goods at the beginning of the month.
As soon as the news came out, the U.S. stock market fluctuated instantly. The S&P 500 index fell by more than 2% in a single day, and market panic spread.
Subsequently, the U.S. Treasury Secretary urgently came forward to ease the situation, claiming that there would be no tax increase before November 1st, but there was no clear statement on whether to increase taxes and which specific commodities to be levied.
This kind of policy is unresolved, which makes American companies miserable. Car companies bear the brunt and repeatedly calculate costs. If tariffs are implemented, the cost of each car will increase by $1,200, and eventually this burden will be passed on to consumers.
Chip factories are also attacked from both sides. On the one hand, they have to deal with the technical restriction policies of the United States, and on the other hand, they are also worried about the risk of supply chain rupture. Rare earths are the lifeblood of these two industries to maintain production.
According to data from the U.S. Geological Survey, the United States relies extremely heavily on key minerals. More than 90% of rare earths, antimony, indium, etc. rely on imports, of which 100% need to be imported from abroad.
And 80% of the processing link depends on China, policy uncertainty, so that a quarter of the U.S. manufacturing enterprises dare not easily invest in the U.S.-China supply chain related long-term projects, industry development has fallen into stagnation.
In the face of U.S. anxiety, China's implementation of rare earth control is not a confession of external misunderstanding, but a compliance-oriented standard management.
On October 9, the Ministry of Commerce of China issued an announcement that control focuses on safety and compliance, not only adding key rare-earth elements such as uranium, uranium, but also incorporating rare-earth processing equipment into the scope of control.
Even overseas rare earth products, superhard materials, lithium battery anode materials, etc. containing more than 0.1% Chinese ingredients are also under control.
This measure is in line with the conventional management logic of dual-use resources in countries around the world. Its core purpose is to protect China's own resource security and avoid over-exploitation and waste of rare earth resources.
Judging from the actual market reaction, domestic rare earth companies responded quickly. Northern Rare Earth raised the price of rare earth concentrate by 37% in the fourth quarter. Since the beginning of last year, the cumulative increase has been nearly 60%.
In the first three quarters, the profit grew by 1.6 times, and the order was placed in the first quarter of 2026, and the entire market showed a positive cycle of price stability and quantity control.
In order to alleviate the rare earth shortage crisis, the Pentagon launched a $1 billion mine purchase plan, which seems to be a breakthrough, but in fact it is just an emergency fire fighting.
The plan, led by the Defense Logistics Agency, has a clear allocation of funds: $5 billion for uranium procurement, $2.4 billion for uranium procurement from U.S. Uranium Corporation (USAC), and $100 million for uranium procurement.
$45 million in cooperation with companies such as Rilot for uranium procurement, followed by plans to supplement the procurement of uranium, uranium, uranium, but in detail, this plan is vulnerable.
In terms of purchases, the planned 3,000 tons of uranium accounted for only 12.5 percent of U.S. annual consumption, which is three times USAC’s year-round production capacity.
Although 222 tons of uranium is close to 250 tons of total annual consumption in the United States, supply chain stability is difficult to guarantee, and more importantly, the United States has not escaped from external dependence, USAC itself has no domestic minefields.
The raw materials need to be collected from six countries such as Canada, Mexico and Peru, and the processing capacity is very weak, only to turn the dependent object from China to other countries, the fundamental problem has not been solved.
At the same time, tariff policies may further push up procurement costs. However, the United States lacks core rare earth processing capabilities. Even if it hoards raw materials, it cannot be converted into usable products. Compared with my country's advantage of controlling 92% of the world's rare earth processing capacity, the gap is very significant.
This game around rare earth, the core is the competition between the advantages of the industrial chain and the cooperation logic, China's irreplaceability is reflected in having a complete rare earth industry chain from mining to manufacturing permanent magnets.
If the United States wants to replicate such an industrial chain, it will take at least five to eight years, before China implemented export controls on uranium, international uranium prices rose by 40% in three months, and Western enterprises have stored goods.
This phenomenon fully confirms that China's key position in the industrial chain is difficult to bypass. On the other hand, the United States is caught in a double-standard dilemma. It has imposed export controls on 35 key minerals, but has criticized my country's compliance management.
Its $1 billion plan to buy mines and unwavering tariff policies have failed to address the core problems of lack of processing capacity and supply chain decentralization.
At a time when the global industrial chain is deeply bound, my country's rare earth control is not a weaponized means, but the maintenance of resource security and global trade rules. The United States can only put aside its prejudice and recognize my country's position in the rare earth industry chain.
Only by establishing a reasonable trade mechanism through consultation can the stability of the supply chain be truly achieved, instead of relying on short-term emergency procurement and policy pressure.
Pentagon plans to purchase $1 billion in key minerals to accelerate national strategic reserves