China’s Chokehold on This Obscure Mineral Threatens the West’s Militaries

The New York Times ^ | June 9, 2025, 11:49 a.m. ET | Keith Bradsher

[E. Pluribus Unum]

China produces the entire world’s supply of samarium, a rare earth metal that the United States and its allies need to rebuild inventories of fighter jets, missiles and other hardware.

China’s strict controls on the export of heat-resistant magnets made with rare earth minerals have exposed a major vulnerability in the U.S. military supply chain.

Without these magnets, the United States and its allies in Europe will struggle to refill recently depleted inventories of military hardware.

For more than a decade, the United States has failed to develop an alternative to China’s supply of a specific kind of rare earth crucial for the manufacture of magnets for missiles, fighter jets, smart bombs and a lot of other military gear.

Rare earth minerals are a central issue in the trade talks between the United States and China now underway in London.

China produces the entire world’s supply of samarium, a particularly obscure rare earth metal used almost entirely in military applications. Samarium magnets can withstand temperatures hot enough to melt lead without losing their magnetic force. They are essential for withstanding the heat of fast-moving electric motors in cramped spaces like the nose cones of missiles.

On April 4, China halted exports of seven kinds of rare earth metals, as well as magnets made from them. China controls most of the world’s supply of these metals and magnets. China’s Ministry of Commerce declared that these materials had both civilian and military uses, and any further exports would be allowed only with specially issued licenses. The move, according to the ministry, would “safeguard national security” and “fulfill international obligations such as nonproliferation.”

The ministry has begun issuing some licenses for magnets that include two of the restricted rare earths, dysprosium and terbium, to automakers in Europe and the United States. Magnets with these two rare...

[Red Badger]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samarium

[lee martell]

Samarium. Never heard of it, at least not since Chemistry classes. I was expecting the precious mineral to be Lithium, or perhaps Cobalt.

[chajin]

China produces the entire world’s supply of samarium

Singular for samaria, I presume, like galileum.

Whenever someone gains monopolistic control of anything, a replacement is either discovered or invented; it is the nature of human existence.

[HIDEK6]

We should be fine as long as we have the upsadaisium

[Governor Dinwiddie]

Neutron bomb China; Then go shopping.

[piasa]

From a thread more than a decade old: ...

The new lab, dubbed the Critical Materials Institute (CMI), will be a joint effort between a number of large domestic firms in the private sector, universities, and top government research labs.

In addition to Ames Lab, other national labs involved include Idaho National Laboratory (INL), Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). On the university side, major contributors will include Brown Univ., the Colorado School of Mines (CSM), Purdue Univ., Rutgers Univ., Univ. of California-Davis (UC Davis), Iowa State Univ. (IA State), and the Florida Industrial and Phosphate Research Institute.

Corporate partners include General Electric Comp. (GE), OLI Systems Inc., Spintek Filtration, Advanced Recovery, Inc., Cytec Industries, Inc. (CYT), Molycorp Inc. (MCP), and Simbol, Inc. (Simbol Minerals).

II. Attacking the Problem From All Angles

Among the research projects will be:
Improve rare earth recycling/reuse
Improve extraction processes
Develop rapid deployment mining techniques
Develop rare earth material substitutes
Study and optimize supply chains to minimize waste
Top targets for domestic rare earth production include neodymium — used in neodymium iron boron (NeFeB) hard drive magnets and cell phone components — and samarium — used in samarium cobalt (SmCo) drive magnets. Currently the U.S. has no domestic neodymium producers and only one domestic samarium producer....

[ETCM]

Named after the mineral samarskite, which is in turn named to honor Vassili Samarsky-Bykhovets.

[TexasGator]

” a rare earth metal”

They are not rare but are a real pain to refine.

China dominates with lax environmental controls.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

” a rare earth metal” They are not rare but are a real pain to refine. China dominates with lax environmental controls.

That makes total sense. Should have thought of that myself.

[chajin]

I just learned a bit more about Russian geography: the Samara oblast, from which the Samarsky name arises, which is the basis, as you pointed out, for samarium. Спасибо.

[Mean Daddy]

Not on their list but this has been in the works for the past 15-20 years.

https://www.niocorp.com/critical-minerals/

[ETCM]

Whenever someone gains monopolistic control of anything, a replacement is either discovered or invented; it is the nature of human existence.

True, but I don't think China really has a monopoly on Samarium.

World resources of samarium are estimated at two million tonnes; they are mostly located in China, US, Brazil, India, Sri Lanka and Australia

China is just the only country mining and exporting samarium. If the USA needs it, we can likely mine it ourselves - possibly at a significantly higher price. If it is a national security issue, we should either have a stockpile or mine it ourselves.

From the article:

On April 4, China halted exports of seven kinds of rare earth metals, as well as magnets made from them. China controls most of the world’s supply of these metals and magnets. China’s Ministry of Commerce declared that these materials had both civilian and military uses, and any further exports would be allowed only with specially issued licenses. The move, according to the ministry, would “safeguard national security” and “fulfill international obligations such as nonproliferation.”

Sounds like it's time.

[Pikachu_Dad]

time for Musk to harvest a few space rocks.

[BobL]

“China’s strict controls on the export of heat-resistant magnets made with rare earth minerals have exposed a major vulnerability in the U.S. military supply chain.”

Reason 472 as to why we should have NEVER gotten involved in the Ukraine War, as it drove Russia into China’s arms, and now China is WEAPONIZING minerals that we were TOO STUPID to stockpile.

[logi_cal869]

The persons at the Pentagon responsible for this ‘oversight’ should be courts-martialed.

[MeanWestTexan]

The Monazite sands (from which samarium is obtained) are all over the sands from Maryland to Florida. We just have to be willing to get it.

The price or interest hasn’t been sufficient to do so and environmentalists prevented it.

Which tells you the real agenda behind most environmental BS.

[ryderann]

Assist

Yes, samarium can be found in North Carolina, as it was first isolated there from the mineral samarskite. The state has been a source of this rare earth element.

The Guardian
Wikipedia

[BipolarBob]

I seem to remember reading about the Good Samarium.

[ryderann]

“time for Musk to harvest a few space rocks.”

Musk could get it here with his Boring Company.