Pentagon to invest $511 million in Australian rare earth mine

China restricted exports of the rare earth scandium for defence products in 2025.

China plans to expand production capacity of a mine in Bayan Obo in its Inner Mongolia region with an investment of over half a billion yuan (US$74 million). The expansion will raise the mine’s annual output by 50 per cent from 10 million to 15 million tonnes at the world’s largest rare earth deposit. Bayan Obo is a co