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The 10 Countries That Mine the World's Rare Earths |
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The US Geological Survey published its 2026 mineral survey in February. It puts the United States second, at 51,000 tonnes — one open pit in the California desert, 13% of world supply. America still imported two-thirds of the rare earths it used. |
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Source: US Geological Survey, Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026 (February 2026). Mine production, tonnes of rare-earth oxide equivalent, 2025 estimates. |
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Most people missed it. But if you go back and listen carefully, there's a pattern
Most people missed it. But if you go back and listen carefully, there's a pattern.
Trump didn't just mention gold once. He's dropped a series of sly hints that, when you line them up, paint a very clear picture.
He promised a "new American Golden Age." Most people took that as a slogan. What if it wasn't?
He warned that to fix the economy "there would be some pain." Most people assumed he meant tariffs. What if he meant something bigger?
His Treasury Secretary went on national television and said the administration plans to "monetize the assets on the balance sheet." The government's single biggest asset? 261 million ounces of gold valued at $42 an ounce on the books. Worth over $1.2 trillion at market prices.
There's legislation in his own party right now to revalue that gold. A Federal Reserve economist published a paper on how to do it. And central banks around the world are hoarding gold like they already know the ending.
One hint is a comment. Two is a coincidence. This many is a plan.
No president since Nixon has talked about gold this openly. And the last time a president acted on gold, FDR in 1934, it created one of the biggest wealth events of the century. Most Americans had no idea until it was too late.
The "pain" he warned about? It's coming for people who aren't positioned. The "Golden Age"? It's coming for people who are.
A free report called "The Great Gold Reset" connects every hint, every statement, every piece of legislation into one clear picture. And shows you how to get on the right side of it in about 15 minutes. No taxes. No penalties.
| What's Surprising |
The United States mines the second most rare earths on Earth. One open pit does it. Mountain Pass, in the California desert, produced a record 50,692 tonnes in 2025 — nearly the whole American industry, and 13% of world supply.
It buys America very little. The country still imported 67% of the rare-earth compounds and metals it consumed last year, and 71% of those imports came from China. Digging the ore is the ordinary part. Separating seventeen chemically near-identical elements is the hard part, and China holds 91% of the world's refining.
Myanmar is fourth at 22,000 tonnes, dug in Kachin State and trucked over the Chinese border. The USGS describes the resource this way: rare earths are “relatively abundant in the Earth's crust, but minable concentrations are less common.”
| What's Not Surprising |
China mined 270,000 tonnes, 69% of world supply. That is 5.3 times the United States and more than twice the rest of the world combined. Its last published mining quota, in 2024, was exactly 270,000 tonnes. In 2025 Beijing stopped publishing the quotas and told its companies not to share the numbers.
Reserves are not the constraint. Brazil sits on 21 million tonnes, a quarter of the world's, and mined 2,000. Canada, Greenland, South Africa and Tanzania hold four million tonnes between them and mine nothing.
In April 2025 China put seven rare earths under export licence: samarium, gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium, lutetium, scandium, yttrium. Those controls still stand. The wider package announced in October was suspended on 7 November 2025, for one year.
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91% China's share of the world's refined rare-earth output, on the IEA's count. Its share of the mining is 69%. |
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18,000 Tonnes mined last year by everyone outside the top four. Less than Myanmar alone. |
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$1.71 The 2025 price of a kilo of cerium oxide. A kilo of neodymium oxide: $73. Same ore, same pit. |
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67% The share of the rare-earth compounds and metals America used last year that it had to import, in the year it mined 13% of the world's ore. |
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10 November The day China's suspension of its October export controls runs out. Seven weeks from now. |
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Trump and Xi meet in Washington on Thursday. China's suspension of its October controls expires on 10 November. The April licences do not expire at all. The live signal is the monthly customs figure for magnets: shipments to the United States fell 21% in August, to 512 tonnes. The next USGS survey lands early in the new year, and will show whether American output cleared 51,000 tonnes. We'll be watching. |
