{"id":449577,"date":"2025-09-25T04:42:23","date_gmt":"2025-09-25T04:42:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/449577\/"},"modified":"2025-09-25T04:42:23","modified_gmt":"2025-09-25T04:42:23","slug":"is-a-rumoured-us-rare-earth-fund-coming-too-late-to-catch-up-with-china","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/449577\/","title":{"rendered":"Is a rumoured US rare earth fund coming too late to catch up with China?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">As China consolidates its near-monopoly status in critical minerals and rare earth elements \u2013 essential raw materials for the production of numerous high-value items in the technology and defence sectors \u2013 Washington\u2019s proposed US$5 billion fund to secure its access to these supply chains may come too late to close the gap, analysts said.<\/p>\n<p>Bloomberg reported last week that the United States is planning to allocate billions in pursuit of a <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/news\/china\/diplomacy\/article\/3326103\/us-invests-zambia-project-bid-loosen-chinas-grip-critical-minerals?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"noopener\">larger share<\/a> of these minerals\u2019 global supply, following a US$400 million investment from the Pentagon in July that made it majority shareholder of rare earth producer MP Materials.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The fund, still under negotiation, would be structured as a joint venture between the US International Development Finance Corporation, a government development finance institution, and the New York-based materials investment firm Orion Resource Partners. Each party would contribute roughly half of the capital, according to the report.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe US$5 billion is a step in the right direction, but we need to see a lot more consistent policy support around supporting these <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/economy\/global-economy\/article\/3320648\/how-trade-war-turbocharging-american-rare-earth-mine-its-all-changed?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"noopener\">non-Chinese companies<\/a>,\u201d said Nick Marro, principal economist for Asia and global trade lead at the Economist Intelligence Unit.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The move is an important statement of intent, he said, but given China\u2019s outsize role in the supply and pricing of critical minerals, the profitability of new entrants into the sector should not be considered a certainty.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u201cFor any attempt to break that chokehold, there has to be a separate conversation around whether these operations can be viable against intense Chinese competition.\u201d<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">China\u2019s dominance in rare earth elements \u2013 it accounts for about 60 per cent of global supply and roughly 90 per cent of the world\u2019s refining capacity \u2013 has become a major bargaining chip in its protracted trade dispute with the US.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As China consolidates its near-monopoly status in critical minerals and rare earth elements \u2013 essential raw materials for&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":449578,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3090],"tags":[102602,151252,151253,521,3801,51,1395,48588,1700,151256,151250,4447,151254,151255,50454,8723,16,15,49,151251,6709],"class_list":{"0":"post-449577","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-adam-smith","9":"tag-alfredo-montufar-helu","10":"tag-ankura-consulting","11":"tag-asia","12":"tag-beijing","13":"tag-business","14":"tag-china","15":"tag-economist-intelligence-unit","16":"tag-economy","17":"tag-harry-murphy-cruise","18":"tag-mp-materials","19":"tag-new-york","20":"tag-nick-marro","21":"tag-orion-resource-partners","22":"tag-oxford-economics","23":"tag-pentagon","24":"tag-uk","25":"tag-united-kingdom","26":"tag-united-states","27":"tag-us-international-development-finance-corporation","28":"tag-washington"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115263107503027035","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449577","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=449577"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449577\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/449578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=449577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=449577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=449577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}