China imposes export controls on rare earths and magnets
China places export licensing requirements on a group of medium and heavy rare-earth elements and on rare-earth permanent magnets, following earlier controls on gallium and germanium in 2023, on graphite in 2023 and on antimony in 2024. Because separation and magnet manufacture are concentrated overwhelmingly in China, the measures propagated quickly into automotive, wind turbine and defence supply chains outside it. The event demonstrates the argument of the critical-minerals object in a single instrument: the leverage is in processing rather than in geology, and it can be exercised administratively at short notice. The scope and current status of these controls as of August 2026 were not checkable in this session.
Historical — it happened, and the record is settled.
Subjects
- Critical minerals for the energy transition · natural resource · global; processing concentrated in China · not located
- Bayan Obo mining district · site · China
- The horizontal-axis wind turbine · technology · global; offshore concentrated in the North Sea, China and East Asia · not located
Evidence
Partly verified — Core facts are sourced; some optional detail is deliberately absent.
Global Critical Minerals Outlook (annual series)
Supports the account of mineral demand growth, the concentration of refining and processing capacity relative to mining, the country shares for lithium, cobalt, nickel, graphite and rare earths, and the price volatility of the 2022–2024 cycle. V55 verification basis: not retrieved in this session; processing concentration is therefore described qualitatively as "dominant" rather than as percentages, and no country share is stated as a number anywhere in this pack.
International Energy Agency, Paris · Partly verified
IEA, Global Critical Minerals Outlook, annual editions from 2024
Recorded on Critical minerals for the energy transition
- The United Kingdom's fifth contract auction attracts no offshore wind bids
- The first Global Stocktake calls for tripling renewable capacity
- The lithium price collapses after its 2022 peak
- China imposes export controls on rare earths and magnets
Related
Related because they share a subject in the Atlas — never because the text looks similar.