The watershed moment came in July when the federal government became the largest shareholder of MP Materials, a California miner of rare earth elements for the oft-overlooked but critical magnets that help connect the global economy.
The government’s unusual foray into private industry was accompanied by new rules setting minimum U.S. market prices for some of these materials—a pricing floor it said was necessary to protect MP Materials from Chinese competitors it accused of “dumping” their goods at artificially low prices.
It marked the start of a campaign by the Trump administration to overturn China’s 30-year dominance of trade in many critical minerals that are increasingly integral to the products—from drones and automobiles to data centers and missiles—that drive America’s economy and help bolster its national security.
“This is really a Manhattan Project-style effort with all-out intensity,” MP Materials CEO James Litinsky told Fortune. MP is expanding its Mountain Pass mining, refining, and recycling in California and its new Texas magnet plant in this “Cold War 2.0.”
At issue are 60 natural elements deemed “critical minerals” by the U.S. government, including the 17 so-called rare earths as well as key materials used in batteries. America has zero production of over half of them.
