The global race for rare-earth minerals

Many nations want to challenge China’s mining and processing dominance to power clean-energy technologies

A silhouette of the headgear at Steenkampskraal rare-earth mine in South Africa
China accounts for 60% of global rare-earth minerals production
(Image credit: Rodger Bosch/Getty Images)

Congress is due to introduce a bill this week that aims to encourage the domestic production of rare-earth minerals so the US can wean itself away from its reliance on China.

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Keumars Afifi-Sabet is a freelance writer at The Week Digital, and is the technology editor on Live Science, another Future Publishing brand. He was previously features editor with ITPro, where he commissioned and published in-depth articles around a variety of areas including AI, cloud computing and cybersecurity. As a writer, he specialises in technology and current affairs. In addition to The Week Digital, he contributes to Computeractive and TechRadar, among other publications.