South Korea joined the US-led Minerals Security Partnership earlier this month alongside the likes of Germany, France, Britain, Australia and Japan in a move designed to reduce its dependency on China for key resources, including rare earths.
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Although it’s home to producer Lynas, the land down under only accounts for some 3 percent of the world’s rare earth reserves.
Rare earths are elements vital to the modern technology age. The 17 elements grouped as rare earths are found in batteries, magnets, lasers, fibre optics, battle tanks, satellites, guided missiles and wind turbines and that’s just to name a handful of applications.
By Australia’s own account, the land down under only accounts for some 3 percent of the world’s rare earth reserves well behind China, the global superpower of the rare earths supply chain.
But there is a global focus on Australia as a rare earths player, and China is part of the reason why. Not because China was hungry for rare earths in the same way it is for all the other commodities Australia sells but because of a trade dispute between China and Japan.