Key Takeaways

• Countries are accelerating rare earth and strategic metals production, led by MP Materials, Albemarle, and Lithium Americas in North America.
• Global metals companies expanding rare earth supply outside China include Lynas, Pilbara Minerals, and Iluka Resources.
• Policy support and rising clean energy demand are driving long-term growth in rare earth investments.

How North American Metals Companies are Facing a Trade War

Rare earths and strategic metals are the invisible backbone of modern life. They help power technology such as EV motors, wind turbines, smartphones, MRI machines, and advanced defense systems. Rare earth elements possess unique properties like magnetic strength, heat resistance, and light transmission. These are not easily substituted, making them essential in sectors where performance is critical.

Amid an ongoing trade war between the United States and China, the United States is focused on reviving its supply chains, creating a durable investable theme and new opportunities outside of China-based companies.

The Rare Earth Opportunity Set is Expanding Beyond China

China has long dominated mining, refining, and magnet manufacturing. In 2025, Beijing expanded export controls on rare earths, processing tech, and even extraterritorial rules for products containing Chinese-origin materials. That tightened the screws on global buyers and galvanized U.S. industrial policy, widening the opportunity for domestic projects and suppliers. And while Washington has wielded tariffs—up to triple-digit levels on select Chinese goods—as a negotiating lever, both countries have recently struck a narrow, near-term accommodation aimed at stabilizing rare-earth flows and reducing immediate supply shock. But even this temporary easing doesn’t change the strategic long-term trajectory: the U.S. is still pushing to onshore critical mineral supply chains. Federal funding, long-term offtakes, and permitting priority continue to channel toward projects that can deliver not just ore but finished inputs like magnets and battery-grade lithium—signaling that reshoring remains a long-game initiative, regardless of short-term diplomatic calm.

Other nations are following suit with governments and corporations mobilizing to build rare earth and strategic metals supply chains outside China. Several notable, recent announcements highlight the size, scope, and global coordination of that effort:

Source: IEA, Reuters. Data as of August 2025.

Top North American Metals Companies to Keep an Eye On

As this dynamic plays out, these domestic companies are among those well-positioned to benefit:

MP Materials (MP)

MP Materials is America's only fully integrated rare earth producer, with operations spanning mining, processing, and the manufacturing of rare earth magnets. The company owns and operates the Mountain Pass mine in California, which is one of the world's richest rare earth deposits. With more than $500 million in funding and offtake agreements from both the Department of Defense and Apple, MP is scaling magnet production and downstream processing.

Lithium Americas (LAC)

Lithium Americas is a Canadian company focused on developing the Thacker Pass lithium mine in Nevada, which is one of the largest known lithium deposits in the U.S. The company is working with partners like General Motors to produce battery-quality lithium carbonate from the site to support North America's sustainable energy transition. Recent developments include the U.S. government taking an equity stake in the company as part of a restructured loan agreement.

Albemarle (ALB)

Albemarle Corporation is a global specialty chemicals company that produces critical ingredients for a wide range of products, with a focus on lithium, bromine, and catalysts. It is one of the world's largest lithium producers, with its products used in energy storage (like electric vehicle batteries), and also provides chemicals for electronics, pharmaceuticals, construction, and transportation.

Top Metals Companies to Watch Outside of China

As more countries across the world look to onshore supply of critical natural resources, these companies outside of China are among those well-positioned to benefit:

Lynas Rare Earths (LYC)

Lynas Rare Earths is the largest non-Chinese producer of separated rare earth materials, operating the Mt Weld mine in Western Australia—one of the highest-grade rare earth deposits in the world. The company also runs a processing facility in Malaysia and is building a U.S.-based separation plant to support Western supply chain diversification. Lynas supplies essential materials for EV motors, wind turbines, and advanced manufacturing, positioning itself as a key partner for governments seeking to reduce reliance on China.

Pilbara Minerals (PLS)

Pilbara Minerals is a leading Australian lithium producer and the owner of the world-class Pilgangoora lithium-tantalum project, one of the largest hard-rock lithium deposits globally. The company provides spodumene concentrate to major battery and chemical producers and is expanding downstream conversion capacity through joint ventures. With strong production growth, long-term contracts, and a balance sheet fortified by high-cycle lithium prices, Pilbara plays a central role in securing lithium supply for the global energy transition.

Iluka Resources (ILU)

Iluka Resources is a mineral sands producer and a key emerging supplier of rare earth oxides through its Eneabba project in Western Australia. Historically known for zircon and titanium minerals, Iluka is now developing one of the world’s only fully integrated rare earth refinery systems outside China. Backed by a strategic financing package from the Australian government, the Eneabba refinery will produce separated rare earth oxides essential for permanent magnets used in defense, EVs, and clean energy technologies.

What to Consider When Investing in Rare Earth Metals Companies

Investing in American rare earths isn’t like buying another software stock. It’s closer to funding a moonshot factory—part policy project, part heavy-industry build, part commodity cycle. The upside is real, but so are the moving parts. Here’s how to think about the risks.

Policy & Geopolitics: The invisible hand on the tiller

In this space, headlines can change cash flows. Export controls, tariffs, and U.S. policy decisions don’t just shape narratives—they alter project timelines, financing costs, and long-term offtakes. It’s important for investors to watch the policy calendar as closely as earnings season and track China’s counter-moves alongside U.S. incentives.

Commodity & Project Risk: Models meet metallurgy

Rare earth and lithium prices swing—sometimes violently—and projects swing with them. Even great deposits face real-world friction: permitting delays, capex creep, commissioning hiccups, and lower-than-modeled recovery rates (especially in first-of-kind U.S. facilities).

Supply-Chain Depth: Where the margin really lives

The most attractive margins accrue as materials move from ore to metal to alloys to finished components (magnets, cathodes) and finally into OEM contracts. Accordingly, investors must consider how companies control things like processing, conversion, and locked-in offtakes with autos/tech/defense—it’s not just about a company’s pure rock-in-the-ground exposure.

2026 Outlook

Markets have already started to price the tension of the ongoing trade war, with magnet materials like neodymium and tungsten seeing significant price increases due to tighter supply. While some of those price gains have diminished following the near-term agreement between the United States and China, the longer-term trajectory of onshoring supply of these critical natural resources remains intact. Because the bigger story heading into 2026 isn’t price—it’s policy. China’s dominance in this space was built through decades of centralized state strategy, with the country consolidating mines, subsidizing refining, and allowing less stringent environmental standards. And China has shown a willingness to use its position strategically, tightening export restrictions when geopolitics heat up. For the U.S. and its allies, access to these materials is no longer just an economic question. It’s a matter of national security and energy independence. As a result, the investment momentum behind rare earths and strategic metals companies outside of China is accelerating. They’re no longer a niche materials trade—they’ve become a strategic lever in the evolving economic world order and a compelling opportunity for 2026 and beyond.

How to Invest

Directly purchasing rare earths isn’t feasible for most investors—these materials are not traded on traditional commodity exchanges. That’s where REMX comes in.

The VanEck Rare Earth and Strategic Metals ETF (REMX) provides pure-play, comprehensive, global exposure with holdings generating at least 50% of revenues from rare earths and strategic metals.

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