Rare earth plays an important role in military, metallurgy, petrochemical, glass-ceramics and other fields. For example, in the military, the use of rare earths can greatly improve the performance of missiles, planes and tanks. The advanced weapons and equipment of the United States are largely due to its leading position in the field of rare earths.
The mining and refining of rare earths will seriously pollute the environment. Because of the important role of rare earth, the United States restricted mining and bought rare earth from China at a high price. However, due to the loss of pricing power, the rare earth exported by China is almost the price of Chinese cabbage. If China's rare earth resources are exhausted, it is impossible to buy them at a high price.
The United States has a large reserve of rare earth resources, but it does not control the entire rare earth industry chain, so it relies heavily on rare earth materials from China. For a long time, the supply of rare earths has been one of the biggest hidden dangers of the US military. At present, more than 70% of the rare earth materials in US military weapons and equipment come from China. These rare earth minerals are very important for the manufacture of missiles, high-performance engines, hypersonic weapons and electronic equipment. Many American military personnel have called on the United States not to guarantee a stable and reliable supply chain, because China has a decisive advantage in the international rare earth market. In recent years, the United States has taken more and more actions to accelerate the development of its rare earth industry, and the Pentagon finally chose a new bill to get rid of the dependence of American military industry on China's rare earths through the support of real money.
The purpose of the new bill is to encourage American military production to shift to domestic suppliers and promote the development of domestic related rare earth industries through more capital investment. For example, the US government recently awarded a contract for separation of heavy rare earths to non-China enterprises, and issued a tender for light separation of rare earths and neodymium magnets, which will be used in javelin missiles and F-35 fighter jets. Before this new bill is passed, the U.S. Department of Defense cannot invest more than $50 million in the Defense Production Law Fund unless it obtains additional permission from Congress. However, the Pentagon's legislation proposes to raise this ceiling to $350 million. If successful, they can have more funds to invest in more rare earth projects.