Rare earth minerals are needed for just about every bit of modern technology you could imagine – as well as the kind of military hardware you couldn’t.

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Valued potentially at just $10 billion with development, the West has failed to appreciate the value of the global rare earths market compared to other major commodities. Iron ore, for example, contributed more than $100 billion to the Australian economy last year.

One advantage of an authoritarian regime like the CCP is that implementing longer term plans and initiating comparatively low return projects is readily achievable.

The costs of authoritarianism are high but if even lay people like me understood the value of rare earth metals almost twenty years ago then the "leaders" in the West have no excuse for digging this hole that hasn't been dug.