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To compete with China, US needs to rebuild rare earth talent from the ground up

The US drive to reduce reliance on China for rare earths and critical minerals will take more than fixing resource and processing gaps, experts say,…

By Samantha Johnson / April 13, 2026
The US drive to reduce reliance on China for rare earths and critical minerals will take more than fixing resource and processing gaps, experts say, noting that the decisive factor would be talent.

Eroding industrial know-how, a weak education pipeline, and the lack of a consistent long-term strategy could complicate US ambitions to become a mining powerhouse and rival or even surpass China, they warned.

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The South China Morning Post has previously reported that the issue could dominate the long-awaited talks. The summit was originally scheduled for end-March but postponed because of Trump’s focus on the US-Israel war on Iran.

Rare earths are a critical component in many advanced weapons systems. Observers said China’s dominance in rare earths stemmed not only from its industrial scale but also from decades of accumulated engineering expertise, which the United States was struggling to rebuild after decades of decline.

US says Trump’s China visit delayed until May because of Iran conflict

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According to Marina Zhang, associate professor at the University of Technology Sydney’s Australia-China Relations Institute, “rebuilding a rare earth supply chain is fundamentally a human capital challenge”.

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