State Department Mining Show; Lighthouse Uranium Scoop; China's Amsul Export Controls; Kenya's Prospecting License; Auking, Aldoro, Sunrise, MP and the lot.
Rare Earth 9 August 2026 #203
Note
Clickbait
Rare earths have become the subject of an ever-growing body of publications and social media posts, as institutions, think tanks and individuals alike attempt to grasp the topic and make some consulting money by trying to sound rare earth competent. Most, however, are built on snippets of information, generalisation and AI-based miscarriages, generating what is, at best, clickbait.
The universal approach of rare earths being commodities is placative and not effective. The ores break up into up to 16 products (not 17, promethium is extinct). At least 12 of them should actually be termed specialty chemicals, which — applied in tiny quantities of several different grades — enable core functionalities in hundreds of technology products. 4 rare earth could be termed “commodity” - but only if viewed in relation to other rare earths. Because in the grand picture of non-ferrous metal commodities, rare earth is just a tiny dot.
And those, who want to think of NdFeB magnets as commodities, be reminded that the US imported 333 million pieces of NdFeB magnet last year, in average 17 grams each, in all different shapes, sizes and grades.
Rare earth remains being a hellishly complicated subject.
In rare earths, if you know what you are asking, AI can be a search engine on steroids. But if you view AI as a shortcut in order to bridge a lack of knowledge, be aware that AI will shower you with content, but this content inevitably includes deal-breaking falsehood. And you won’t notice.
AI depends on rare earths
We have identified 12 rare earths which — at different criticality ratings — are at the core of AI data center components: La, Ce, Pr, Nd, Eu, Tb, Dy, Er, Ho, Tm, Y and Sc.
With the exception of NdFeB magnets, the quantity of each rare earth element is so small, that none of them would make it on a bill of materials of a data center. Note that in the pre-EV age, computer harddisks where about half of NdFeB demand.
The entire data center would not work without rare earths.
It is astounding to see that those who sank US$387 billion into US data centers in 2025 and are on the way to double this number in 2026, while betting on the uncertain commercial future of the current incarnation of AI, don’t seem to waste a minute thinking about how these things should work without input from China, including the lack of China-controlled rare earth driving the whole thing.
AI works stateless. It does not remember. Every time a user interacts with AI in an existing conversation, the entire conversation and discussed documents are being sent to the data center, as if it was a new chat. A mountain of identical data being sent back-and-thro to be processed repeatedly on follow-up questions, just because AI does not remember conversations. This is incredibly wasteful.
Perhaps on-device AI may be the way to go, if it would eliminate this wasteful and in our view entirely unsustainable current concept.
//Politics
USA
Democrats demand information on Trump and Lutnick families’ ties to critical mineral deals
Democratic senators on Friday demanded information on more than a dozen critical mineral deals with the federal government that potentially benefit the families of President Donald Trump or Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.
The federal government is working on deals with at least 14 companies that have financial ties to the Trump or Lutnick families, the senators said, pointing to a New York Times investigation in June. The Trump administration has provided or is considering providing more than $8.9 billion in funding to the companies, according to the Times.
The New York Times article of 28 June 2026 probably refers to a list, which The Rare Earth Observer had provided to its readers already on 21 April 2026.
Here the link to the original again: https://www.usmineraldeals.com/usg_portfolio
Washington DC lobbyists can probably answer the question, how some of the most challenged rare earth projects on the planet could have possibly made it on the list, while much more prospective projects — none of them ideal, though — were probably never even considered.
The White House reaction?
There was a State Department meeting with Trump, Rubio, Lutnick, and Burgum in attendance. Among the numerous guests were reportedly:
