China’s recent export controls have alarmed critics of the rare earth industry, and some worry that Beijing will exploit its dominance of the global supply chain in unprecedented ways. – never

China’s Ministry of Commerce announced Thursday that export controls on antimony will come into effect on September 15. Antimony is used in lead, nuclear weapons production, and lead acid batteries. It can also strengthen other metals.

“Three months ago, no one would have thought they would do this,” said Lewis Black, CEO of Canadian company Alimenti Industries. The company said it is spending at least $125 million to reopen a tungsten mine in South Korea later this year.
Tungsten is almost as hard as diamond, and is used in weapons, semiconductors and industrial cutting tools. Both tungsten and antimony are listed as rare earth metals in the United States, separated by less than 10 elements on the periodic table.

“My industry now believes this is closer to implementation than the graphite decision,” Black said, referring to export controls previously imposed by China. Last year, Beijing said the the world’s largest producer of graphite, said it would implement export licenses for vital battery materials amid scrutiny from foreign countries worried about its leadership.

According to the latest annual report issued by the US Geological Survey, China accounted for 48% of global antimony mine production in 2023, while the United States produced no marketable antimony. existence The report said that the United States has not produced tungsten commercially since 2015, and that China dominates the global supply of tungsten.

“I think this is the beginning of some restrictions on exports in a number of rare earths,” said Tungsten Metals Group CEO Tony Adcock. He said he found it hard to believe that China would simply limit antimony.

“The way he wrote a statement [وزارة التجارة الصينية]We based this on tungsten and other rare metals. This probably won’t happen,” he said, noting that “tungsten is probably of the highest economic importance,” according to Adcock.

The military importance of tungsten
The United States has tried to limit China’s access to high-end semiconductors, after which Beijing announced export controls on germanium and gallium, two metals used to make chips.

While tungsten is also used in the semiconductor industry, the metal, like antimony, is used in defense production.

“China is seeing a decline in tungsten production, but tungsten is absolutely critical, much more than antimony, in military applications,” said Christopher Eccleston, chief mining strategist at Hallgarten & Company.

China is expected to impose export controls on tungsten by the end of the year, if not in the next month or so.

The United States already wants to reduce its dependence on China for tungsten.

Beginning in 2026, the US REShore Act bans the use of Chinese tungsten in military equipment. This refers to the Essential Onshore Energy and Security Reserves Renewal Act of 2022.

The House Select Committee on Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party announced in June a new working group on US critical minerals policy.

Ecclestone said that last week, the special antimony trading market noted that the US price for buying the metal from Rotterdam was significantly higher than the price for delivery from Shanghai. This is after antimony prices continued to rise even after the pandemic-related shipping disruption ended, he said.

“It is suspected that the Pentagon was replenishing its reserves of certain minerals, especially antimony because it needs antimony for weapons,” said Eccleston, who founded the mining strategy firm Mining Strategy in 2003.

At the same time, Marcus Hermann Chen, co-founder and managing director of China Macro Group, believes that China is retaliating more “against what it sees as interference with its national interests.”

He noted that China’s third meeting of policymakers in July “put forward a completely new policy goal to better coordinate the entire mineral value chain, which is likely to demonstrate the importance of the provision of ‘strategic mineral resources’ for both commercial and geo-economic interests. “

Emerging alternatives
As China seeks to ensure national security, companies in the United States and elsewhere are looking to take advantage of an emerging opportunity.

“Energy Fuels has been the largest supplier of uranium oxide to the United States for many years to support domestic nuclear energy production,” said Mark Chalmers, Chairman and CEO of Colorado-based Energy Fuels. He said the company is working to establish an American production line for rare metals.