The rare earths mine becoming a bellwether for US minerals policy
China is home to 70 per cent of rare earths mining and 90 per cent of processing capacity. Tackling this dominance has become one of Washington’s strategic priorities. A small African mine has a role.
A site close to Kruger National Park in South Africa is becoming a testing ground for US attempts to fight China’s global dominance in critical minerals.
Washington has committed to finance a little-known London-listed miner hoping to extract rare earths – a set of 17 minerals key to clean energy technologies – from the chalky stacks outside the safari park, as the US seeks to challenge China’s runaway lead in accessing the metals globally.
