Trump promises ‘so much critical mineral and rare earth that you won’t know what to do with them’ after signing $8.5b deal with Australia
https://fortune.com/2025/10/21/washington-rare-earth-pact-china-australia-8-billion-four-decades/?utm_source=flipboard&utm_medium=activitypub
Posted into News @news-fortune
@fortune @news-fortune Ok, the average for starting up a mine in Australia is 20 years (globally it's 15-18 years). So I guess habitual liar #trump plans to invent also a commercially viable time machine to send the rare earths back to 2026. Processing plants for the stuff require 2-7 years.
Hint: "Let's do some of our own Rare Earth mining" was a strategy a couple of years ago in the EU too, last time when #Trump triggered #Peking into clamping down on rare earths in May 2019.
We aren't much beyond the point where NIMBYism has reared its ugly head (mining that stuff is not something that one wants to do in a tightly populated region, it's "dirty" and does not look overly ecological).
But hey, #Trump as the sole guilty party for rising tensions with China into such an escalation cycle, that now China reserves the right to license product manufactures with Chinese rare earths outside China.
As #Trump declared GPUs to be dual use goods, guess no GPUs with with Chinese rare earths more?
Ah, #MasterOfTheDeal #Trump is a rare genius, isn't he, getting into a pissing contest with #China before checking reality. Oh right, Donald is living in an alternative reality that his #GOP handlers create for him.
Fortune
Andreas K