Interview: Can the US End Dependence on China for Critical Minerals?

On December 3, China announced a ban on exports of gallium, germanium, antimony and other superhard materials to the United States. The order, effective immediately, also mandates tighter reviews of graphite exports to the US. The decision intensifies trade tensions following Washington’s latest measures against China’s chip industry.

The restrictions, which expand enforcement of critical minerals export limits introduced last year, apply exclusively to the US. The move comes as President-elect Donald Trump prepares to take office next month, having vowed to impose stricter sanctions on China and a 60% tariff on Chinese goods.

Gallium and germanium are essential for semiconductors, with germanium also used in infrared technology, fiber optic cables, and solar cells. Antimony is critical for ammunition production, and graphite is the largest component by volume in electric vehicle batteries.

The announcement has raised concerns that Beijing might expand the restrictions to include other critical minerals, such as nickel or cobalt, which have broader industrial applications.

Warning lights for the US EV industry

China’s new regulations again throw a spotlight on how much the US EV and battery industries are dependent on China for critical minerals such as graphite, nickel, cobalt, and tungsten.

Related:Ensuring the Global Supply of Tungsten Critical to EV Batteries

“Relying on China for essential materials is a big national security concern,” Lewis Black, director, president, and CEO of Almonty Industries tells Battery Technology. Almonty is an international mining company specializing in processing and shipping tungsten—and holds the only portfolio of long-life tungsten mines in the West.

Workers at the Sangdong Mine in South Korea. ALMONTY

Tungsten’s critical role in the manufacturing of EV batteries is notable: About 2 kg of tungsten goes into every EV in the form of anodes and cathodes, as well as wiring looms in semiconductors—and there are about 2,000 of those looms in every car.

Black discussed by email the hazards of this critical-mineral-critical dependency for the US EV industry and how he expects the incoming Trump administration to respond to.

With a new administration, what changes are needed to address America’s dependence on foreign-controlled critical materials?

Almonty Industries CEO Lewis Black: Just this month [December 2024] China announced export controls on tungsten, graphite, gallium, germanium, antimony and so-called “superhard materials.” The US is almost completely reliant on foreign sources for those resources. And let’s be honest, when we say “foreign” we mean China. Relying on China for essential materials is a big national security concern. The solutions are opening new mines in the US, which has vast undeveloped mineral resources, and stockpiling critical minerals that we cannot mine but are available from reliable offshore partners.

How is China consolidating control over key resources?

Black: China has, for at least 30 years, controlled between 60 percent and 80 percent of global production of most, if not all, of the critical minerals and rare earths that the EU, US, Australia, Korea and other allied nations list as essential for industrial and defense purposes. Speaking particularly of tungsten, which is my business, China is closing tungsten mines that it deems uneconomical and using its trillion-dollar trade surplus to outbid everyone else in the global market to import what it needs. China is now both the largest producer and exporter of tungsten products and the largest importer of tungsten.

Between the two tactics, China remains in control of the global tungsten market, while leaving an increasing amount of tungsten in the ground. And as we are demonstrating with our Sangdong mine in South Korea, a resource that is uneconomic to extract at one point in time can become economic later.

China President Xi Jinping at the National Peoples Congress at the Great Hall of the People on March 11, 2024 in Beijing, China. Kevin Frayer/Getty Images

You have said that China has been able to bypass US tariffs: How?

Black: China has an extensive playbook for evading US tariffs. For example, in Korea and Thailand, there are tungsten smelters that are Chinese owned, operated, and managed (as well as supplied with Chinese raw materials), but legally classified as South Korean or Thai companies, so they are not subject to our tariffs. China has many shell companies established in the EU simply to shuffle around their exports for the sole purpose of evading US tariffs and other restrictions.

How can the US reduce dependence on foreign sources to secure national interests?

Black: The US has confronted, and solved, this problem before. The US government established a program for procuring and stockpiling strategically important materials prior to World War II, which is one of the reasons that American war production was sufficient to arm both the US and, to a considerable extent, its allies. Stockpiling fell out of favor around the end of the Cold War, but the Defense Logistics Agency still exists and would resume stockpiling if ordered to and funded. Stockpiling critical minerals is essential, and much better yet would be if those materials are mined domestically, which the US used to do and could do once again.

All the barriers to US self-sufficiency in critical minerals are political and regulatory. Basically, nobody wants a mine near their house and the US regulatory system is designed so project opponents have endless appeals and opportunities to raise new issues. Australia and Canada, both major mining economies, have regulatory standards just as stringent as the US, and it takes years in both countries to get a mine fully permitted—but the difference is that their process is predictable. Miners have to meet lofty standards, but when they have, they get a permit and can go to work. My expectation is that the incoming Trump Administration will reform the US permitting process and get America back in the mining business.