When it comes to rare earth elements — critical for many industries — it’s all about China. And more and more companies are trying to break the stranglehold the country has over its supply.
Rare earth elements, or REEs, are a group of 17 elements that are used in many industrial applications, most notably in fighter jets, robots, MRI scanners, and automobiles.
REEs are split into two categories: hard and soft. And while China is the major industry player in both the mining and refining of these elements, it especially dominates in hard rare earths like dysprosium and terbium, common in permanent magnets for electric motors and wind turbines.
With news this week that China is allegedly dumping REEs into the market to hurt US and foreign companies, developing an “ex-China” supply chain for companies like automakers and defense contractors is paramount.
That’s where Brazilian Rare Earths (BRE.XA) comes in. It’s one of many companies looking to meet that demand and provide non-China-based REEs.
The company acquired land in northeast Brazil, which it claims is a “globally significant … mineral province housing substantial volumes of both heavy and light rare earths.” BRE says its operation will be functional by 2028 for REE production and it will have its processing plant ready in 2030, which is significant. As Jefferies notes, it can take 10 to 15 years to bring a mining operation to viability.
In an interview with Yahoo Finance, BRE CEO Bernardo da Veiga discussed why it was so important for BRE and other firms to break China’s monopoly as Western governments and China’s other rivals look to “decouple,” as da Veiga puts it.
China is limiting the supply of raw materials and using those resources to produce its own high-value goods to boost its own economy and get out of the low-cost supply game.
“China doesn’t want to sell you rare earths, they want to sell you cars,” da Veiga said, meaning China wants to sell higher-margin finished goods to the world, as opposed to cheap materials. China wants to sell more cars in the global market, and that means keeping rare earths away from competitors.
A mine operated by Serra Verde Mining in Minacu, Goias state, Brazil, Monday, July 28, 2025, produces rare earth elements, including neodymium, praseodymium, terbium and dysprosium which are essential for the production of permanent magnets. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres) ·ASSOCIATED PRESS
“And that’s where we come in, because you need Western companies that have deposits that are located outside of China, or in friendly countries, to be able to develop these,” da Veiga said.
“Rare Earth Magnet Demand is expected to grow substantially, driven by electric vehicles (EV’s), robotics, and advanced air mobility,” Jefferies analyst Mitch Ryan wrote in a note last week. “In the US, magnet demand is projected to increase fivefold by 2035 (albeit from a low base), with [EVs,] robotics, and new technologies such as drones and humanoid robots leading the way.”
Numerous companies in the US, Australia, and other REE-rich areas have announced deals for new fundraising, and even with government backstops or buying equity stakes in companies like MP Materials (MP).
BRE’s da Veiga argued that what sets his company apart is the high purity, or grade levels of the REEs in its tenements, meaning they’re cheaper and less environmentally intrusive to mine because the company doesn’t have to dig up so much earth to produce a given amount of metal.
Brazilian Rare Earths workers at the company’s site in northheast Brazil. ·BRE
“When we talk about grade, we say, ‘My grade is X percent.’ That is a summation of an entire line of the periodic table, and that’s problematic, because some of those elements are virtually worthless, and some of those elements are worth over $1,000 a kilo,” he said. “So what’s actually important is for you to look at each individual element, and what makes up the total grade to see how these projects compare from an attractiveness point of view.”
With hard REEs more rare than soft, the key is to make sure the grade of a certain project contains a decent amount of hard REEs, generally a ratio of 20 or 30 to 1 soft to hard.
BRE says it has one of the highest ratios outside of China. And that’s why BRE’s stock has been on a tear this year, up over 80%. It’s a bet on the company’s ability to viably produce and process REEs at scale.
That said, victory isn’t assured.
Headwinds include the possibility that permitting won’t come through on time, or China suddenly deciding to flood the market with REEs to take down its competition — which allegedly just happened.
Various grades of REEs at BRE’s facility in southeast Brazil. ·BRE
Da Veiga doesn’t foresee any issues with the permitting process in Brazil, as the tenements are not in geographically sensitive areas.
In terms of growth, BRE recently concluded a 120 million AUD ($78 million) fundraise in October and has struck a strategic partnership with French REE mining firm Carester for technical expertise in producing and processing REEs at its site.
The Carester relationship is a great way to get BRE up to speed and de-risks the company from a technical standpoint, da Veiga said, but the relationship is mutually beneficial.
“They’re getting a consulting fee, but what they really want is the off-take. So part of the products that we make will go to them, and they will then further process that themselves,” he said.
It’s that “off-take,” or excess capacity, that Carester wants — and it’s why BRE investors are willing to pay up for the stock of a company that hasn’t mined anything yet.
Pras Subramanian is the Lead Transportation Reporter for Yahoo Finance. You can follow him on X and on Instagram.
When things don’t make sense in the quantum realm, scientists don’t always get to find a good explanation for what they’re seeing. Many times, they arrive at a solution by accident—something that usually begins with the realization that a weird signal is not a wrong signal.
Researchers had known about an odd phenomenon in which an initially conductive material seemingly loses its ability to conduct electricity altogether. Although physicists suspected electrons were involved, they struggled to pinpoint the exact mechanism. But a new paper published in Physical Review Letters identifies the culprit—or, rather, culprits—behind this disappearing act: an amalgamation of particles referred to as polarons.
This specific arrangement creates a strange “dance” between the electrons and surrounding atoms that eventually blocks the flow of electricity in the material, according to the researchers. The findings represent the first time polarons were found inside a compound based on thulium, selenium, and tellurium—rare earth metals key to the fabrication of advanced technologies.
“The fact that we were able to make it visible here for the first time shows what interesting new phenomena are still to be discovered in the quantum cosmos of materials,” Kai Rossnagel, study senior author and scientist at the DESY Institute in Germany, said in a statement.
Not many, but one
Polarons belong to a family of strange quantum bodies called quasiparticles. Simply put, quasiparticles describe how, under some circumstances, a group of particles will behave collectively as one particle. Polarons characterize the interaction between electrons and atoms, in this case the rare metal compound. The slightly distorted atomic layers drastically slow down the electrons, putting a damper on the flow of electrons—electricity.
These transitions “show that the properties of a material cannot be explained by its chemical composition alone,” noted the researchers in the statement. Electrons tend to be privy to the movements of other electrons nearby and will easily move together as quasiparticles, they added, in the process “forming particle-like states with new properties.”
An odd little bump
The team initially set out to investigate the general properties of the thulium-based compound. They carried out various measurements of the material using different radiation sources, including intense X-rays at particle accelerators. For some reason, they kept seeing a tiny bump next to the main signal.
As per usual, they waved it off as a technical error, but the bump persisted throughout the various measurements. At this point, the researchers decided to embark on a focused investigation of the signal—a project that ended up taking years to complete.
It was when they brought in a 70-year-old model that the calculations finally made sense. Essentially, the small bump was the product of electrons vibrating together with the atoms of the metal compound as a polaron, according to the paper.
“That was the decisive step,” explained Chul-Hee Min, study lead author and a physicist at Kiel University in Germany, in the statement. “As soon as we included this interaction in the calculations, the simulation and measurements matched perfectly.”
What’s more, it’s already known to physicists that many modern quantum materials display similar properties. If researchers can better harness these odd electronic properties, polarons could hasten the arrival of materials such as room-temperature superconductors.
Energy Fuels (UUUU) Hits a Fresh High Amid the Escalating Trade War
Energy Fuels Inc. (NYSEAMERICAN:UUUU) is a leading US-based critical minerals company, focused on uranium, rare earth elements, heavy mineral sands, vanadium, and medical isotopes.
Energy Fuels Inc. (NYSEAMERICAN:UUUU) soared to its all-time high this week after China announced broad new curbs on its exports of rare earths and other critical materials, as it tightens its grip over this sector ahead of talks between Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping.
Nonetheless, this strategic move by the largest rare earths producer presents a significant opportunity for suppliers like Energy Fuels Inc. (NYSEAMERICAN:UUUU), which is ‘well-positioned to provide 10 of the 50 critical minerals required globally for modern technologies.
Moreover, Energy Fuels Inc. (NYSEAMERICAN:UUUU)’s strong position in the uranium industry grants it an edge amid the ongoing nuclear boom, especially with the Trump administration working to reduce imports of the nuclear fuel from Russia.
While we acknowledge the potential of UUUU as an investment, we believe certain AI stocks offer greater upside potential and carry less downside risk. If you’re looking for an extremely undervalued AI stock that also stands to benefit significantly from Trump-era tariffs and the onshoring trend, see our free report on the best short-term AI stock.
Donald Trump was all over the place during two press conferences at the White House on Monday, where he rambled about his fascist vision for the country. But there were some points of levity, including when the president tried to explain how China became a leader in rare earth minerals. Or at least that’s what we think he was talking about.
“China intelligently went in and they sort of took a monopoly of the world’s magnets,” Trump said. “Nobody needed magnets until they convinced everybody 20 years ago, ‘let’s all do magnets.’”
Trump went on to say that there “were many other ways that the world could have gone” and insisted “we’re heavily into the world of magnets now.” Trump went on to say that he sent Boeing “all the parts so that their planes could fly,” referring to parts that were held up during the trade war.
Trump: “China intelligently went in and they sort of took a monopoly of the world’s magnets. Nobody needed magnets until they convinced everybody 20 years ago, ‘let’s all do magnets.’ There were many other ways that the world could have gone … we’re heavily into the world of magnets now.”
Trump went on to say that tariffs are “much more powerful” than magnets and that China would be charged a “200% tariff or something” if leaders in the country “don’t give us magnets.” Trump insisted that eventually the U.S. would have “so many [magnets] we won’t know what to do with them.”
Trump made the remarks during his meeting with South Korean President Lee Jae Myung, but what is he talking about? It seems the president is trying to refer to the tit-for-tat that’s been happening ever since his so-called “Liberation Day” tariffs were announced on April 2. China retaliated on April 4 by announcing new export controls on seven rare earth elements and magnets that are vital for things like electric vehicle motors, wind turbines, and electronics.
U.S. automaker Ford has faced production delays over its inability to source rare earth magnets, according to the Wall Street Journal, even temporarily shutting down a facility in Chicago over the shortage back in May. China controls roughly 90% of the world’s rare earth metals, making Trump’s unnecessary trade war a truly idiotic fight to pick if you’re trying to boost manufacturing in the U.S.
What does Trump mean by saying that China convinced the world “let’s all do magnets”? That’s unclear, but it might be a reference to the fact that China has been a leader in developing sustainable energy production. Trump and the Republican Party more broadly have been committed to fossil fuel energy for purely ideological reasons, and it probably makes sense to the president’s base for him to insist China somehow hoodwinked the world into accepting the energy transition to sell magnets. Or something. As with all things Trump, it’s often hard to read his mind.
At one point during the press conference that preceded his meeting with the South Korean leader, Trump referred to a governor named “Kristi Whitman,” someone who doesn’t exist. Trump later corrected himself to say “Whitmer,” apparently referring to the governor of Michigan, but her name is Gretchen, not Kristi. The Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, was nearby, which may explain why the name Kristi was rattling around in that hollow noggin of his.
Trump also signed an executive order on Monday that would jail anyone who burned an American flag for one year. That issue was most famously litigated in the 1980s, resulting in the 1989 U.S. Supreme Court case Texas v. Johnson, which holds that burning a flag is protected speech.
But Trump obviously doesn’t care. He’s going to keep testing the boundaries of what’s accepted by the American public, recently escalating his military occupation of Washington, D.C., by having members of the National Guard carrying weapons. Federal agents are terrorizing the city, and people are getting arrested for little more than just filming police, according to videos that are being posted to social media.
Trump has threatened to send the National Guard to Chicago next, something the governor of Illinois has explicitly said he doesn’t want. But it’s a brand new world. And things are going to get a lot worse before they get better.
