US bill aims to end China's 'chokehold' on America's rare earth supplies

Context

A law has been proposed in the United States aiming to end China's alleged "chokehold" on rare-earth metal supplies.

Key-highlights

• The Chinese Communist Party has a chokehold on global rare-earth element supplies, which are used in everything from batteries to fighter jets.
• Eighty percent of the United States' rare-earth imports in 2019 were from China.
• With this bill, the US aims to end its dependence on China for extraction and processing of these elements.
• The law would require the departments of the Interior and Defense to create a "strategic reserve" of rare earth minerals by 2025.

What are rare earth elements?

• The rare earth elements (REE) are a set of seventeen metallic elements. These include the fifteen lanthanides on the periodic table plus scandium and yttrium.
• The 17 rare earth elements are: lanthanum (La), cerium (Ce), praseodymium (Pr), neodymium (Nd), promethium (Pm), samarium (Sm), europium (Eu), gadolinium (Gd), terbium (Tb), dysprosium (Dy), holmium (Ho), erbium (Er), thulium (Tm), ytterbium (Yb), lutetium (Lu), scandium (Sc), and yttrium (Y).
• Rare earth elements are an essential part of many high-tech devices.

Global Reserves of Rare Earth Minerals

• China tops the list for mine production and reserves of rare earth elements, with 44 million tons in reserves and 140,000 tons of annual mine production. 
• While Vietnam and Brazil have the second and third most reserves of rare earth metals with 22 million tons in reserves and 21 million tons, respectively, their mine production is among the lowest of all the countries at only 1,000 tons per year each.