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"A single F-35 fighter jet requires roughly 400 to 500 kilograms of critical Rare Earth materials and specialized metals to be built. When China implemented aggressive, tight export licensing and restrictions on minerals like gallium, samarium, and neodymium […]"The term "rare-earth" is a misnomer, because they are not actually scarce, but because they are found only in compounds, not as pure metals, and are difficult to isolate and purify. REEs are relatively plentiful in the entire Earth's crust (cerium being the 25th-most-abundant element at 68 ppm, more abundant than copper) [...] China dominates the rest of the world in terms of REE reserves and production; in 2019, it supplied around 90% of the global demand for the 17 rare-earth powders. [...] As of 2025, the US and Australia produce the second- and third-highest amounts of REEs, but Brazil has the second-largest reserves of the metals. A U.S. defense procurement restriction is scheduled to take effect in January 2027, prohibiting the use of Chinese-origin rare-earth metals and magnets in U.S. defense systems. - Wikipedia
Regards,