PERTH, Australia- The United States is on track to establish a domestic rare earths supply chain to meet its defense needs by 2027, a senior defense official said on Wednesday.
The US has been driving the build out of a global supply chain for rare earths, metals used in magnets for green energy industries and defense, beyond dominant producer China since COVID upended global supply chains early this decade.
“We are on track to meet our goal of a sustainable mine to magnet supply chain capable of supporting US defense requirements by 2027,” Assistant Secretary of Defense for Industrial Base Policy Laura Taylor-Kale said at a mining conference in Perth.
Australia is classified as a domestic source of supply, alongside Canada and the UK, for critical minerals for the US under the Defense Production Act and the US has been offering funding opportunities to Australian mine developers.
The US this year extended its support for the first time to back two Australian-listed rare earths projects with up to $850 million to help build out the supply chain.
It has already funded Australian producer Lynas Rare Earths the world’s biggest producer outside of China, to build a new rare earths processing facility in Texas.
Government support for the sector is also coming domestically. In Australia, the federal government has pledged a A$1 billion ($667 million) loan to mineral sands producer Iluka Resources to build a new minerals processing plant on the country’s west coast.
But these expansion projects have come as prices for rare earths have slumped, hurt by rising supply as China exports more to global markets.
