Caught between rare earths and Chinese dominance — Part 3: Metal is the only thing that matters – MINING.COM – MINING.com

China is slowly surrendering all other parts of its Rare Earth monopoly to further enhance its metallurgical monopoly. Why ? Because 95% of all value derived from rare earths is in the form of metal, alloys and magnets so that is the only point in the value chain that China needs to maintain.
How does this work? China maintains its monopoly through opaque subsidies that may equate to 100% of operating, capital and conversion costs by western standards. For example, the normal markup for finished…

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