In a desolate area of California’s Mojave Desert lies a sun-scorched, dusty mine that could be pivotal in deciding which global superpower leads in mastering future technologies.
The U.S. Department of Defense has discreetly acquired a 15 percent stake in MP Materials, which owns the Mountain Pass rare earth mine. Experts believe this strategic move will influence the global power dynamics.
This mine is unique in the Western hemisphere for its production of rare earth metals, a critical group of 17 elements essential in the manufacturing of advanced technologies like fighter jets, smartphones, electric vehicles, and AI-driven weaponry.
And right now, China produces about two-thirds — and processes upwards of 90 percent — of the global supply.
Rod Martin, a geopolitical strategist and founder of Martin Capital, calls the $400 million Pentagon deal a game-changer.
‘No more begging China,’ he wrote on X.
Still, critics say the US is not moving fast enough and that its F-35 warplanes and other top-shelf weapons rely too heavily on exports from a powerful rival.
Though they sound exotic, rare earth metals are all around us — in the vibrating motor in your phone, the radar in a fighter jet, and the guidance systems in smart bombs.
An employee displays a piece of raw ore pulled from the Mountain Pass mine, California
Rare earths and the vital magnets they yield are a bargaining chip between US President Donald Trump and China’s President Xi Jinping
What makes them special is their ability to produce high-strength permanent magnets, the tiny components that turn electrical power into motion.
They’re essential in wind turbines, solar panels, missile systems, and even quantum computing and artificial intelligence.
But they are also problematic. Mining and processing rare earths is dirty, complex, and politically charged — and China has spent decades dominating the game.
Beijing doesn’t just mine these elements. It also refines and separates them, a critical process that transforms them into usable forms.
This gives China not just market dominance, but geopolitical leverage, which it has wielded before.
In 2010, during a spat with Japan, China abruptly cut off rare earth exports, sending global prices soaring.
More recently, amid trade tensions with the US, Chinese officials hinted at weaponizing rare earth supply again.
With rare earths becoming the new oil in the global economy, Washington is finally waking up.
US President Donald Trump has adopted a blunt strategy: tariffs, trade deals, and takeovers, detailed in an executive order in April.
Though a US-China trade deal signed in June eased short-term pressure by boosting rare earth exports from China to the US, the long-term strategy is to onshore the supply chain.
The Pentagon stake in MP Materials, announced this month, makes it the largest single shareholder in the only fully integrated rare earth facility in the West.
Neha Mukherjee, a rare earths analyst with Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, says the deal will ‘reshape global rare earth supply chains.’
Mountain Pass mine: the dusty wasteland that could decide if America or China wins the 21st Century power struggle
Rare earths are vital for making top shelf military gear, from drones to F-25 fighters
Employees manage the control room of the processing facility at the Mountain Pass mine
Located just south of Las Vegas, the Mountain Pass mine has been extracting ore since the 1950s.
Baked under the relentless Mojave Desert sun, the open-pit mine in a dusty expanse of beige and ocher features towering conveyor belts that feed crushed rock into hulking processing plants that shimmer with heat.
It’s remote, rugged and imposing — a no-frills fortress of American resource power nestled just off Interstate 15, 50 miles south of Las Vegas.
After a series of bankruptcies, MP Materials — backed by US capital and led by former hedge fund managers — revived and modernized the plant in 2017.
Now, thanks to Pentagon backing, MP is ramping up again, refining rare earth materials and manufacturing magnets at new facilities in Texas.
The company also announced a $500 million deal with tech giant Apple this month to produce more of the powerful magnets used in iPhones, as well as other high-tech products like electric vehicles.
The mine currently processes neodymium and praseodymium — two metals essential for high-performance magnets used in F-35 jets, drones, cruise missiles, and next-gen satellites.
And with rising tensions between the US and China — over Taiwan, trade, and technology — reliable access to rare earth materials could decide the next war before a shot is fired.
The West has struggled to weaken China’s grip on the supply of rare earths, in part because low prices set in China have removed the incentive for investment elsewhere.
The Pentagon deal guarantees a minimum price for MP Materials at nearly double the current market level.
Analysts say the deal is positive for producers, but may increase costs for consumers, such as automakers and, in turn, their customers.
Ryan Castilloux, managing director of consultancy Adamas Intelligence, told Reuters that the price floor was a ‘new center of gravity in the industry that will pull prices up.’
But to fully break China’s chokehold, the US isn’t stopping with Mountain Pass.
Rare earth magnets are used in much high-tech manufacturing, including electric vehicles
A plant mechanic performs maintenance on vehicles at the Mountain Pass mine in California
Rock and ore samples from America’s only rare earths mine, Mountain Pass, in California
Rare earth metals are not as rare as the name suggests, though they are concentrated in a handful of countries, this Visual Capitalist graphic shows
The Trump administration is exploring alternative sources of rare earths in Greenland’s icy tundra and Ukraine’s mineral-rich plains — part of a wider push to build a global supply network with friendly nations.
The Biden administration previously eyed similar goals, but Trump’s return to power has supercharged the mission, adding nationalist urgency to what had been a more technocratic effort.
There’s money in it, too. Shares of MP Materials have surged since the Pentagon investment, with analysts forecasting billions in new revenue as EV makers, defense contractors, and tech firms rush to lock in US-based supply.
But there are still obstacles ahead. Rare earth extraction is environmentally messy, and the US will need new permitting laws and public-private partnerships to meet demand without backlash.
Critics also warn that, even with domestic mining, processing capabilities lag behind, and building a full-scale supply chain will take years — if not a decade.
Lt Col ‘Franky’ Matisek, a national security professor with the US Naval War College, slammed the US for only making ‘glacial’ progress toward self-sufficiency.
‘China’s restrictions are already here; the US supply chain won’t be fully stood up until 2027 at the earliest — if ever,’ Matisek and two colleagues wrote this month.
‘That timeline is unacceptable.’
Martin and others, however, say the gears are in motion, and America is moving fast.
And in the heart of California’s desert, a mine once left for dead may just hold the key to America’s next century of power.
