Thank you dear subscribers, we are overwhelmed with your response.
Your Turn is a unique section from ThePrint featuring points of view from its subscribers. If you are a subscriber, have a point of view, please send it to us. If not, do subscribe here: https://theprint.in/subscribe/
“The Middle East has oil; China has rare earths.” -Deng Xiaoping, 1992
In today’s world, warfare is going stealth, the real battlefield may lie beneath the earth’s crust– not in oil fields, but in the stratum of rare earth elements (REEs). They are powering everything from iPhones to intercontinental missiles. With China controlling over 85% of global REE processing and nearly 70% of extraction, these 17 obscure elements have quietly become evident as one of the most strategic assets of the 21st century.
Why REEs Matter? Power Lies where the Magnets are.
Rare earth elements (REEs) are 17 chemically similar elements (including Scandium, Yttrium, and the 15 Lanthanides,) with exceptional magnetic, luminescent, and electrochemical properties that have emerged as critical enablers of 21st-century strategic and defence infrastructure. The weaponization of REEs presents a silent but potent shift in global power hierarchies. Herein, the access to minerals perhaps increasingly defines a nation’s autonomy in warfare, technology, and diplomacy.
Visible drivers leading to a New Form of Vulnerability
Rare earth elements are the faint and discreet drivers of global power. While absent from mainstream geopolitical discourse, they are embedded in nearly every defence and dual-use technology from precision-guided munitions and jet engines to satellite systems and hypersonic missiles. Their strategic relevance, however, extends far beyond defence into clean energy, digital infrastructure, and well-laid quantum communication.
The irony lies in their name- rare earths are not geologically scarce. What is rare is the capacity to mine, separate, and refine them at an industrial scale. This bottleneck has been engineered, not by geology, but by decades of strategic statecraft, most notably by the People’s Republic of China.
China’s Strategic Monopoly: A Case Study in Resource Diplomacy
According to the United States Geological Survey (USGS, 2023), China accounted for over 70% of global REE mine production and more than 85% of global refining capacity. This control is not accidental but strategically planned. Through the 1990s and 2000s, China consciously undercut global REE prices, forcing mines in the US and Australia to shut down. Once extraction was synthesized, Beijing secured its grip through environmental regulations and export quotas.
What led to the demarcation was the moment in 2010s, when China halted rare earth exports to Japan following a maritime dispute in the East China Sea. Although unofficial, this embargo marked the first modern instance of mineral-based coercive diplomacy.
Today, countries like the United States import over 80% of their REE compounds from China. The European Union is similarly exposed, while India despite holding the fifth-largest global reserves remains marginal in global value chains due to insufficient refining infrastructure and policy inertia.
REEs in Defence: The Strategic Link
The defence applications of REEs are neither incidental nor substitutable.
- Neodymium and dysprosium: essential in permanent magnets for missile guidance systems, tank motors, and UAVs.
- Samarium-cobalt magnets: reliable at high temperatures– critical in fighter aircraft engines.
- Yttrium and europium: enable night vision devices and targeting lasers.
These elements are embedded not just in end-products but in supply chain logic. Without access to high-purity REEs, nations risk systemic vulnerabilities in command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (C4ISR) architecture.
India’s indigenous defence manufacturing goals under the Atmanirbhar Bharat initiative cannot proceed in isolation from rare earth self-reliance.
India’s Position: Abundance Without Leverage
India possesses significant REE reserves, particularly monazite-rich coastal sands in Tamil Nadu, Odisha, and Kerala. (13.07 million tonnes in-situ monazite (containing ~55-60% total Rare Earth Elements oxide) resource occurring in the coastal beach placer sands in parts of Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat and in the inland placers in parts of Jharkhand, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu.”: PIB)
However, production remains capped due to environmental regulations, lack of separation technology, and policy silos between the Department of Atomic Energy and Ministry of Mines.
In 2022, DRDO flagged concerns over strategic supply chain exposure due to REE dependencies. Yet, India’s only functional REE processing facility operated by Indian Rare Earths Ltd. remains limited in both capacity and output purity. Without a clear mineral strategy, India continues to rely on Chinese imports even for critical defence components.
Conclusion: Geopolitics of the Ground Beneath
We are entering a world where global order will be defined not just by conventional arms, nuclear parity, or digital supremacy, but by control over the essential materials that power these technologies. REEs are not merely a resource; they are a strategic leverage point. They are an axis upon which diplomatic power can pivot and coercion can be exercised without resorting to war.
India, at the crossroads of technological ambition and geopolitical assertiveness, must transform from a passive holder into an active architect of rare earth geopolitics. Mineral security transcends resource economics; it is fundamentally about asserting strategic sovereignty.