Mineral Power Plays: How China and Canada Shape U.S. Defense, Tech, and Agriculture

The U.S. faces growing strategic vulnerability due to its reliance on China and Canada for critical minerals like rare earths, graphite, gallium, and potash. This article explores how these resources impact defense, technology, and agriculture—and what’s at stake in securing future supply chains. CriticalMinerals RareEarths NationalSecurity TechSupplyChain DefenseIndustry
Potash AgricultureSecurity ChinaDependency CanadaResources MineralStrategy
USGeopolitics

The critical minerals absolutely necessary for the U.S. defense, technology and agriculture sectors, which must be acquired from China and are only partially supplied by Canada, include rare earth elements (REEs), antimony, graphite, gallium, germanium, cobalt, nickel, and tungsten.

China dominates the global supply chains for these minerals—controlling over 90% of rare earths refining, 80% of graphite and lithium battery materials, and significant percentages of nickel, cobalt, gallium, and germanium.

The U.S. defense sector heavily depends on Chinese-sourced rare earths for manufacturing magnets used in fighter jets, submarines, missiles, radars, and drones. Export restrictions recently imposed by China have further exacerbated this dependency.

Examples:-Rare earth elements (including neodymium and dysprosium) for permanent magnets in precision-guided weapons, aircraft, and electronics.

-Graphite for batteries, electronics, and specialty lubricants.

-Gallium and germanium for semiconductors, advanced optics, and night-vision systems.

-Antimony for munitions, flame retardants, and specialty alloys.

-Cobalt, nickel, tungsten for batteries, aerospace superalloys, and defense components.

Canadian Contributions (Partial Suppliers): Canada is a significant but not primary supplier of some critical minerals for the U.S:

-Nickel (23% of U.S. consumption from Canada)

-Aluminum (23%)

-Uranium (21%)

-Niobium (26%)

-Germanium (13%)

-Refined zinc (50%)

-Potash (71%)-- recently designated a critical mineral in the U.S

Canada also has potential to develop and increase supply of rare earths, graphite, bismuth, gallium, scandium, and tungsten in partnership with the U.S., but currently fills less than 10–30% of U.S. demand in many of these categories—leaving the rest to imports from China or other sources.

In short, rare earths, graphite, gallium, antimony, germanium, tungsten, cobalt, and nickel are indispensable for U.S. defense and technology, with China providing most of the global supply.

U.S. tariffs imposed in 2025 are significantly disrupting these critical mineral supply chains—especially with China—while creating tension and uncertainty in U.S.–Canada trade relations. These moves are reshaping sourcing strategies, increasing costs, and accelerating domestic and allied investment efforts.

While Canada is a strategic ally and partial supplier of critical minerals, U.S. tariffs on Canadian metals and mining equipment have created friction. These tariffs affect aluminum, nickel, and zinc, among others, and have led to higher operational costs for Canadian exporters.

##, Despite this, the U.S. is expanding its investment footprint in Canadian mining beyond lithium and REEs to include graphite, nickel, cobalt, antimony and other strategic minerals. These efforts reflect a multi-sector push to secure supply chains for defense, technology, and energy transition. signaling a complex mix of cooperation and competition. At the same time, Canadian officials have expressed concern over foreign ownership of strategic assets, potentially leading to regulatory pushback.

While Canada is increasingly involved as a partial supplier, the U.S. strategic dependence on China persists for most of these minerals as of late 2025.

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For information only and not a recommendation to buy or sell shares.

Mining News: www.minestockers.com (Disclosure-the writer is a shareholder of minestockers.com)


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