Challenge to China dominance gains pace

Last week, Ukraine and the United States signed a deal to mine rare earths containing critical minerals in Ukraine.

- T N C RAJAGOPALAN

President Trump signed an executive order for deep sea mining in international ocean-beds to explore rare earths. The race for challenging China's dominance of critical minerals that are in short supply has gathered pace.

Critical minerals/metals like cobalt, graphite, lithium, gallium, germanium, antimony, beryllium etc. are required in making mobile phones, solar panels, wind turbines, electric vehicles, aerospace, electronics and other clean energy equipment. China has 44 per cent of the known rare earth deposits that contain such critical minerals and 90 per cent of global capacity for extracting such critical minerals/metals. Last month, China restricted export of critical minerals/metals disrupting supply chains and production schedules of the user industries around the world. That has got the other countries worried and spurred them to enhance their own capabilities.