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#1The Malacca Dilemma: Why 80% of East Asia's Energy Runs Through a 1.5-Mile Bottleneck/#2De-Dollarization vs. Market Reality: Inside the BRICS Currency Architecture/#3The Rare Earth Monopoly: Why the West Cannot Build F-35s Without Chinese Minerals/#4Bypassing Suez: How the INSTC Corridor Connects Mumbai to St. Petersburg via Chabahar/#5The SMR Revolution: Small Modular Reactors and the New Atomic Geopolitics/#6Resource Nationalism: How the Lithium Triangle is Rewriting Mining Contracts/

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The Rare Earth Monopoly: Why the West Cannot Build F-35s Without Chinese Minerals

Strategic TechTrending

November 8, 2026•8 min read

The Rare Earth Monopoly: Why the West Cannot Build F-35s Without Chinese Minerals

While mining rare earth ore is globally distributed, processing the oxides and manufacturing sintered NdFeB magnets remains heavily concentrated in China. We explore why building substitute supply chains takes a decade.

Marcus Vance

Marcus Vance

Strategic Materials & Industrial Defense Analyst