MP Materials' CEO Came to Taiwan for Rare Earth

The CEO of the only rare earth enterprise MP materials in the United States, Michael Rosenthal, came to Taiwan with a low profile in late August, according to the news from Cankaoxiaoxi.com. He said that if the Chinese mainland plays the "Rare Earth" card, the world will be afraid.

Chinatimes.com quoted the news from the "Business today" report on August 29, saying that for his low-key visit to Taiwan, Rosenthal of MP Materials said: "We want to know which rare mineral products are needed in Taiwan and other Asian industries." He pointed out that the company does not currently have customers in Taiwan and is actively looking for partners. "The United States is actively rebuilding the industry chain."

In fact, rare earths are not "rare" or "soil". The Mountain Pass mine in California has a large number of its reserves. "The production once contained 60% to 70% of the world's demand." Ou Huasen, who owns the operation rights of the Mountain Pass said. However, after the 1990s, China's rise, the use of its mineral deposits to develop a large number of rare elements industries, after China's role in supporting the global supply, the US and global production capacity is willing to abdicate, creating today's China's rare metals Hegemony.

"At present, our products are only rare earth 'mines', and there is no way to separate them into rare elements. More than 90% of our mines must be sent to mainland China for processing..." Rosenthal explained the current US industry and mainland China. The subtle connection between both sides is simple. Although the US restarts mining, most of the minerals must be sent to mainland China for refining to be purified into commercial rare elements and then transport back to the US.

According to the report, Trump announced in early August that it would impose tariffs on “all remaining products exported to the US” in mainland China. But the so-called "all remaining products" list has quietly ruled out key minerals such as rare earth. What the difference can be made from the MP Materials CEO visit Taiwan this time? The report believes that this is a significant weakness exposed by the US since the Sino-US trade war.

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