Highlights

• China supplies over 90% of the world's heavy rare earth elements (HREEs) like dysprosium and terbium, which are irreplaceable in high-temperature magnets for EV motors, fighter jets, and defense systems.
• Western mining projects like MP Materials face severe feedstock constraints—Mountain Pass contains less than 1.8% medium/heavy REEs and only ~4% Dy/Tb—while HREE refining outside China costs 5-7× more.
• Despite ambitious plans from Lynas, Iluka, and Brazilian ionic clay deposits, multi-year development timelines and refining bottlenecks mean Western magnet ambitions will succeed or fail based on HREE access, not capital.

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Reuters covers (opens in a new tab) the topic of heavy rare earth shortages---highlighting accurate insights on supply constraints, refining challenges, and the strategic gap in Dy/Tb. The media identifies missing context around magnet-grade requirements and reinforces prior REEx evidence on the dependence of Western magnet supply chains on scarce heavy rare earth feedstock.

A Scarcity With Teeth: The West Wakes Up Late

The new piece cuts to the core of Western supply-chain fragility: the world can build mines, build refineries, even build magnet plants—but without heavy rare earth elements (HREEs) like dysprosium and terbium, the entire system buckles. These elements are the heat-shielding backbone of EV traction motors, fighter jet actuators, submarine drives, and high-performance electronics. And as Reuters correctly reports, the West is scrambling because the numbers are brutal: China still supplies over 90% of the world’s heavy rare earths, even after decades of “diversification.”

The article accurately notes that MP Materials leads U.S. ambitions but sits on a deposit with less than 1.8% medium/heavy REEs—a challenge Rare Earth Exchanges has repeatedly emphasized in prior assessments of Mountain Pass and global deposit profiles. MP’s new heavy REE separation facility may produce 200 tons per year eventually, but current feedstock contains only ~4% combined Dy/Tb—an engineering reality Reuters presents plainly.

The Western Pivot: Brazil, Malaysia, and the Long Timeline Problem

Reuters also highlights a truth REEx readers know well: Brazil is emerging as the critical feedstock source, particularly via ionic clay deposits. But the real bottleneck is not ore—it’s refining. Benchmark estimates that HREE refining outside China remains 5–7× more expensive, and permitting in many jurisdictions remains glacial.

Lynas, Iluka, Aclara, and Torngat are moving, but each faces multi-year development cycles. Our REEx analyses of the Saudi JV, U.S.–Australia alignment, and MP’s new public-private partnership have all pointed to the same structural risk: Ambition far outpaces HREE availability. And a Trump administration narrative establishes a more optimistic tomorrow than is the case in all reality.

Where Reuters Stops Short: The Magnet Reality

The Reuters piece deftly describes the Dysprosium/Terbium gap but lightly tiptoes past a harder truth: no heavy REEs = no high-temperature magnets, no matter how much money or rhetoric is thrown at refinery construction. This is the same point REEx made in recent critiques of various U.S. testimony and so-called magnet policy—alternatives can help, but they cannot replace Dy/Tb in EV motors or defense systems. Even Europe’s VAC admits: “For anything that spins fast and hot, you still need the heavies.”

Reuters’s reporting is largely accurate, balanced, and free of hype. But investors should note what’s left implicit: Without aggressive feedstock partnerships, new refining capacity simply stands empty. The West’s magnet ambitions will rise or fall not on capital, but on HREE access.

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