Against the background of the trade conflict with China, the US military is looking for other sources of supply for rare earths. The Department of Defense has begun talks with Mkango Resources in Malawi and other companies around the world, said Jason Nie, a Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) official at the ministry during a Chicago conference.
„We are looking for any source outside of China,“ he told Reuters. There must be more than one producer. Rare earths are found in armaments from fighter jets to night vision goggles.
China controls only one third of the world’s rare earth deposits. However, it has four-fifths of the processing plants. Accordingly, the US currently covers 80 percent of its needs from the People’s Republic. At the end of May, China’s state media had been speculating about limiting exports to the US because of the trade dispute. The Beijing government had already taken this step in 2010 after a diplomatic dispute with Japan.
