The Radioactive Ore That Could Break China’s Grip on Rare Earths

Monazite Is the Radioactive Ore That Could Break China’s Grip on Rare Earths

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Deep Dive: The Radioactive Ore That Could Break China’s Grip on Rare Earths

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Deep Dive

The Radioactive Ore That Could Break China’s Grip on Rare Earths

Western powers are scrambling for monazite ore—but can they handle it?

October 15, 2026, 9:00 AM

By **Glenn Zorpette**, editorial director, content development, at IEEE Spectrum.

!A person in a white jacket, hard hat, and glasses standing in a dark cave or mine tunnel, pointing up at a rocky ceiling illuminated by a flashlight.

*A person in a white jacket, hard hat, and glasses standing in a dark cave or mine tunnel, pointing up at a rocky ceiling illuminated by a flashlight.*

A mine geologist points to the monazite reef underground at the Steenkampskraal rare-earth mine near the Western Cape town of Vanrhynsdorp, South Africa, on July 29, 2019. Rodger Bosch/AFP via Getty Images

*This article is a collaboration between* IEEE Spectrum*, the flagship magazine of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, and* Foreign Policy*.*

The global campaigns to break China’s dominance of vital rare-earth markets are shaping up into one of the signature geostrategic struggles of the early 21st century. Hundreds of mining companies, government agencies, and industrial facilities scattered across North America, Australasia, and Europe are striving to compete with Chinese firms, which control roughly 90 percent of the markets for rare-earth oxides and rare-earth metals.

*This article is a collaboration between* IEEE Spectrum*, the flagship magazine of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, and* Foreign Policy*.*

The global campaigns to break China’s dominance of vital rare-earth markets are shaping up into one of the signature geostrategic struggles of the early 21st century. Hundreds of mining companies, government agencies, and industrial facilities scattered across North America, Australasia, and Europe are striving to compete with Chinese firms, which control roughly 90 percent of the markets for rare-earth oxides and rare-earth metals.

These are the ingredients upon which vast and crucial manufacturing categories depend: semiconductors, LEDs, lasers, displays, metal alloys, optical lenses, and catalysts for petroleum and chemical processing. Most important, though, are permanent magnets. Essentially all powerful electric motors (and most high-quality audio speakers) are based on rare-earth permanent magnets. These motors are the heart of electric vehicles, heating and cooling systems, robots, appliances, tools, and military systems—from tactical drones to ballistic-missile submarines.

Succinctly put, any industrial power that wants to remain competitive in vital, high-tech industries must have access to a steady supply of rare-earth elements or products based on them. The traditional supply chain for these elements, originating in China, is increasingly fraught—so much so that some analysts are beginning to use the term “mineral war.” But the countries that are now scrambling to piece together alternative supply chains, whether by themselves or in cooperation with each other, face daunting odds. Putting aside the sheer momentum of the Chinese rare-earths juggernaut, few industries can match the rare-earths business for instability, risk, intrigue, and sheer frustration.

!A close-up view of a person using a wooden hand sieve to sift fine brown and black sand or mineral grains into a bowl below.

*A close-up view of a person using a wooden hand sieve to sift fine brown and black sand or mineral grains into a bowl below.*

A worker processes minerals for export at a monazite ore plant in Jos, Nigeria, on March 5.Sodiq Adelakun/Reuters

This tumult notwithstanding, many rare-earth experts see a way forward, and it depends on a specific kind of ore, called monazite.

“The future is monazite,” according to Jack Lifton, an analyst and the co-chairman of the Critical Minerals Institute, an organization formed to promote the creation of a North American supply chain. Lifton, who has been studying the rare-earths industry since 1962, has seen countless trends, companies, and technologies come and go, and he is not given to sweeping statements. But on the subject of monazites, he’s unabashedly bullish. “Right now,” he said, “monazite is the most important rare-earth ore.”

---

!A worker wearing a hard hat, high-visibility vest, and yellow boots walking along a path next to a rocky embankment, with a piece of heavy equipment parked above under a cloudy sky.

*A worker wearing a hard hat, high-visibility vest, and yellow boots walking along a path next to a rocky embankment, with a piece of heavy equipment parked above under a cloudy sky.*

A worker walks past the construction site for a Lynas Rare Earths Ltd. plant in Gebeng, Malaysia, on Feb. 1, 2012.Mohd Rasfan/AFP via Getty Images

The path forward with monazite isn’t going to be smooth or straight, Lifton and others are quick to acknowledge. Monazite contains not only huge amounts of valuable rare earths, it also typically contains radioactive thorium and, sometimes, uranium, which means its handling, storage, and processing is tightly regulated by government agencies.

Nevertheless, major investment is now flowing to monazite mines and processing t