Infographic: Who controls the rare earths shaping the future?

The second edition of our Rare Earths series breaks down global extraction at the mine level, country by country. It then regroups those nations into five geopolitical spheres of control: the American Sphere, Chinese Sphere, Russian Sphere, Coalition of the Willing, and the Undrafted.

While the first graphic showed the American Sphere holding 25% of global reserves and the Chinese Sphere 53%, this update shows a stark imbalance in actual output.

The Chinese Sphere dominates mine-level extraction, generating a staggering 77% of the world’s rare earth production.

Watch: In this 18-minute presentation at the CentralMinEX conference in Newfoundland, TNM Group President Anthony Vaccaro examines how the world is fracturing into competing spheres of control.

(By Anthony Vaccaro; Files from: Ali Ravaghi; Creative: James Alafriz)