Washington is buying into the supply chain: the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday a $2 billion pledge to battery and materials producers, days after a US War Department stake lifted an Australian miner while Canberra tightens limits on Chinese investors.
Rare earths are inputs for defence and high-tech manufacturing, and Western governments are trying to build supply chains outside Chinese ownership. Australia, home to much of the mining, screens foreign investors in the sector, while the United States has begun taking stakes in producers directly. Both lines of policy converge on the same handful of companies.
The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday that the United States has pledged $2 billion to battery and materials producers. Nikkei Asia reports separately that a Chinese rare-earth project in Laos is stumbling while the industry records high profits.
Bloomberg reported on Monday that Australia has widened orders restricting Chinese investors in a rare-earths company. Shares in an Australian miner rose by as much as 29 percent after an investment by the US War Department.