China-Russia-US Rare Earth Gap: Russia 10Mt, US 1.8Mt

Over the past two years, the term "chokehold" has become a buzzword.

Chips, lithography machines, and even small bearings have become synonymous with "chokehold."

But what is truly life-threatening?

It's resources!

Without sufficient resources, even the most advanced technology is useless.

The US, China, and Russia, these three giants, possess the world's most abundant resources.

In this game of resource competition, who will be the last to laugh?

The US has always been a "big consumer of resources," but it has stumbled on rare earth resources.

Back in the day, the Mountain Pass mine in California, USA, was the "big brother" of the global rare earth industry.

From the 1960s to the 1980s, the Mountain Pass mine was a major player in rare earths, almost monopolizing the global rare earth market.

However, with the rise of China's rare earth industry, cheap Chinese rare earth products quickly took over the international market, and the US rare earth industry gradually declined.

The Mountain Pass mine eventually had to cease production in 2002.

Since Trump took office in 2017, the trade relations between the US and China have become increasingly tense, like two heavyweights competing against each other.

Recently, rare earth resources have become one of the most troublesome issues for the US.

The US has recently started to pay attention to its domestic rare earth industry, trying to reduce its dependence on Chinese rare earths.

Policy support, financial investment, the US government has pulled out all the stops to encourage companies to restart rare earth mining, even imposing tariffs on Chinese rare earth products under the guise of national security.

The Americans always have very comprehensive plans, but reality often deviates from expectations.

Rare earth mining is not an easy task, requiring substantial capital and technology, as well as facing the immense pressure of environmental pollution.

The US did not mine much domestic rare earths before, mainly due to concerns about environmental damage.

However, with technological advancements, the US has opened up new possibilities.

In recent years, the US has continuously made breakthroughs in rare earth mining technology, and the application of some new technologies has effectively reduced mining costs and improved economic benefits, which has also given the US the confidence to restart rare earth mining.

The US is now building a complete rare earth industry chain, from ore mining to metal refining, alloy processing, and ultimately producing important rare earth functional materials such as neodymium-iron-boron.

They have made some progress in this area.

The US produced 43,000 tons of rare earths in 2023, with production exceeding 40,000 tons for three consecutive years, ranking second in the world after China.

Russia, with its vast territory, has abundant natural resources, with many resources ranking among the top in the world.

Oil, natural gas, coal, and timber, everything is available!

What's more enviable is that Russia's rare earth resources are also very abundant.

With such rich resources, Russia should occupy an important position in the rare earth field.

However, the reality is not the case.

Restricted by geographical environment, infrastructure, and technical level, Russia's rare earth industry has developed slowly and is difficult to give full play to its resource advantages.

Russia is vast and sparsely populated, with most areas having a cold climate, making it difficult to mine resources in such harsh conditions.

Siberia hides many treasures underground, with oil, natural gas, and coal available.

But the temperature here is too low, making it difficult to mine these resources, which requires a lot of money and top-notch technology.

In addition to the harsh natural environment, backward infrastructure is also a major bottleneck restricting Russia's resource development.

Russia is vast, but its transportation network construction is relatively lagging, leading to high resource transportation costs and low efficiency.

Moreover, Russia is relatively backward in resource mining technology and equipment, making it difficult to develop resources efficiently and environmentally friendly.

For a long time, Russia has been overly dependent on resource exports and has not paid enough attention to technological innovation, resulting in a lack of competitiveness in the field of resource development.

The rich resources are difficult to transform into the driving force of economic development, which is undoubtedly a major problem faced by Russia.

How to overcome the obstacles of geographical environment, infrastructure, and technical level, and give full play to its resource advantages, is an important issue for Russia's future development.

China, with its vast land, has abundant resources, with all kinds of treasures available, and is a resource-rich country.

Since the reform and opening up, China's economy has developed rapidly, and the demand for resources has also surged, making China one of the world's largest resource consumers.

Although the demand for resources is very large, there are also some problems.

Although China has a large population, the per capita resources are not abundant, even lower than the world average level.

With economic development, the problem of resource shortage has become more and more obvious.

On the other hand, for a long time, some resource enterprises in China have been overly pursuing economic benefits and ignoring environmental protection, leading to problems such as resource waste and environmental pollution.

Painfully realizing this, in recent years, China has started to re-examine its own rare earth strategy and gradually transform from a "rare earth power" to a "rare earth strong country."

We have taken a series of measures to strengthen the strategic control of rare earth resources and promote the high-quality development of the rare earth industry.

Strictly control the total amount of rare earth mining and severely crack down on illegal mining activities.

And encourage enterprises to develop high-end rare earth industries, increase the added value of rare earth products, and get rid of dependence on low-end products.

It is not an exaggeration to say that Chinese enterprises are actively entering the high-end field of rare earth materials, such as rare earth permanent magnet materials, rare earth catalytic materials, and rare earth luminescent materials.

They have made a lot of breakthrough achievements.

In the future, China will continue to adhere to the concept of green development, strengthen technological innovation, promote the high-quality development of the rare earth industry, and make greater contributions to global scientific and technological progress and economic development.

We live in this world and cannot live without various resources, which are like soil and water, the foundation of our life and social progress.

Without resources, there would be nothing we have today.

Now, the resource issue is no longer a matter of a single country, but a matter that concerns everyone in the world.

China, the US, and Russia are the countries with the richest resources in the world, and they bear an inescapable responsibility in ensuring global resource security.

To deal with the problem of resource shortage, the three countries should help each other and come up with ideas together to better build a better future.

The three countries should talk more, understand each other, so that they can make the global resource market stable and better together.

Avoid vicious competition and trade frictions, and promote the liberalization and facilitation of resource trade.

Moreover, the three countries should strengthen technical cooperation, jointly solve the technical problems of resource development and utilization, improve resource utilization efficiency, and reduce environmental pollution.

Actively carry out cooperation in the fields of clean energy and circular economy, and promote the sustainable use of resources.

In addition, the three countries can also establish a resource security guarantee mechanism to jointly deal with the risks and challenges of resource shortage and price fluctuations.

Create a resource information sharing platform to help everyone better understand the supply and demand situation of resources, work together, and maintain the stable supply of global resources.

Resources are not tools for competition, but a bond for cooperation.

China, the US, and Russia should work together to seek development and create a better future for mankind.