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China Controls 90% of the Supply. America Has One Mine. Here’s Who’s Fixing That.
Rare earths power your phone, your car, and your fighter jets. The full sector map — players, money, and risks.
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An F-35 fighter jet uses more than 900 pounds of rare earth materials. A Virginia-class submarine needs 9,200 pounds. Every EV motor, every wind turbine, every MRI machine — rare earths make them work.
And China controls almost all of it. About 90% of global rare earth processing. Roughly 90% of rare earth magnet production. When Beijing imposed export controls in April 2025, prices spiked up to six times outside China. Aerospace manufacturers started rationing material.
Until the 1980s, America was the world’s biggest producer. Then we let it go. Now we’re scrambling to get it back.
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Here’s who’s building the American rare earth supply chain.
MP Materials (NYSE: MP) — the biggest name in the sector. It operates Mountain Pass in California, the only rare earth mine of scale in North America. Q1 revenue jumped 49% to $90.6 million. Its Fort Worth, Texas factory started making NdFeB magnets in December 2025. A new “10X” magnet campus is breaking ground nearby. The DOD invested $400 million in the company last year. Market cap: roughly $13 billion.
Energy Fuels (NYSE: UUUU) — a uranium processor in Utah that also extracts rare earths from monazite sand. Its White Mesa Mill is the only conventional uranium mill operating in the U.S. The stock has risen roughly 300% in the past year.
Lynas Rare Earths (OTC: LYSCF) — an Australian miner building U.S. processing capacity. Its heavy rare earth facility in Seadrift, Texas has been delayed by permitting issues. When it comes online, it will be one of the few non-Chinese sources of the heaviest, hardest-to-get elements.
USA Rare Earth — building a processing facility in Stillwater, Oklahoma, with Commerce Department funding pending. It also holds the Pea Ridge mine in Missouri.
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The government money is flowing. The DOD has committed over $439 million to build midstream capacity since 2020 — mostly in Texas. On May 19, the DOE announced another $45.7 million for 19 new critical minerals projects. And the U.S. signed a Critical Minerals Framework with Australia in October 2025 to jointly develop non-Chinese supply.
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★ The Hard Truth
Rebuilding this supply chain will take years, not months. Mining permits alone can take a decade. Separation chemistry is complex. Magnet manufacturing requires specialized alloys. Industry analysts estimate it could take 20–30 years to fully rebuild what the U.S. lost.
And China knows it. Beijing’s export controls are designed to be temporary and reversible — tight enough to cause pain, loose enough to prevent a permanent Western buildout. That’s the strategic game. The question is whether Washington keeps funding long enough to change the math.
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★ THE INVESTOR ANGLE — U.S. RARE EARTHS
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MP Materials
~$72
Up ~300% From Low
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DOD Investment
$400M+
In MP Alone
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China’s Share
~90%
Processing + Magnets
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MP Materials is the pure play. It’s the only U.S. company mining, separating, and now manufacturing rare earth magnets at scale. Revenue is growing 49% a year. It has $1.74 billion in cash. And the Pentagon is a partner, not just a customer.
The risk? MP is still losing money — 2025 net loss was roughly $86 million. The stock at $72 is priced for a future that hasn’t arrived yet. Magnet production just started. If prices drop or policy support fades, the thesis weakens fast. And China could ease export controls tomorrow, which would crash rare earth prices worldwide.
For broader exposure, look at the VanEck Rare Earth/Strategic Metals ETF (REMX). It holds MP Materials, Lynas, and other miners. It’s volatile but gives you the whole sector in one trade. The bet is simple. Either America rebuilds this supply chain, or it stays dependent on a country that has already shown it will cut off supply when it wants to. That’s not a comfortable place to be.
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