'Quad' nations launch plan to stop China making critical minerals into Unobtanium

India, Japan, USA and Australia see risks and opportunities in rare earths

India, Japan, USA and Australia have launched a “Critical Minerals Initiative” they hope will harden supply chains.

The four nations comprise a loose bloc called “The Quad” that stages an annual meeting of foreign ministers. This years’ gabfest took place last weekend, and the resulting joint statement said the bloc is “deeply concerned about the abrupt constriction and future reliability of key supply chains, specifically for critical minerals.”

The statement adds the following explanation:

This includes the use of non-market policies and practices for critical minerals, certain derivative products, and mineral processing technology. We underscore the importance of diversified and reliable global supply chains. Reliance on any one country for processing and refining critical minerals and derivative goods production exposes our industries to economic coercion, price manipulation, and supply chain disruptions, which further harms our economic and national security.

The term “critical minerals” describes many substances, among them the rare earths that are essential to the manufacturing of many electronics and batteries.

The “one country” referred to in the joint statement is almost certainly China, which thanks to geological accident is home to many of the world’s critical mineral deposits and thanks to deliberate policy choices has become the dominant refiner of such minerals.

China’s government knows that the world relies on its rare earth exports and therefore responded to the Trump Administration’s tariff policy with a ban on rare earth exports. While China has since eased that ban, it hurt enough that automakers reportedly wrote to the Trump administration to warn of possible disruptions to production.

Which is why the Quad launched the “Quad Critical Minerals Initiative”. The four nations haven’t detailed what the Initiative will do, or when, but described the effort as “an ambitious expansion of our partnership to strengthen economic security and collective resilience by collaborating to secure and diversify critical minerals supply chain.”

For what it’s worth, all four Quad members hold substantial deposits of critical minerals but little large-scale mining has begun. Processing capabilities are also scarce. The Register fancies the Initiative will try to kickstart both mining and processing and share the work among Quad members – even as the four countries also try to strike deals with Beijing to keep rare earths flowing. ®