The US miner central to America’s efforts to build a domestic rare earths supply chain has halted shipments of its concentrates to China after being caught in the trade war between the two countries.
Las Vegas-based MP Materials has emerged as the US’s best hope for overcoming China’s stranglehold on output of rare earths, a group of minerals vital in a swath of high-tech industries. Its New York-listed shares have risen more than 60 per cent this year, giving the group a $4.3bn market capitalisation.
But the company still sold most of its output of rare earth concentrate to China, the world’s main processing and separation centre for such materials.