G7 Summit Issues Statement, Joining Forces to Address Risks of Highly Concentrated Critical Mineral Supply Chains
0xBroomberg
G7 leaders pledged to jointly build processing capacity and stockpile critical minerals, targeting China's 91% share of global rare-earth refining — this means the West is formally elevating mineral supply chains from an economic issue to a security one.
How dominant is China in critical minerals?
IEA data shows China controls the refining stage for 19 of the 20 critical minerals it tracks, averaging a 70% market share.
Rare earths are the starkest case: in 2024 China accounted for 59% of global mining, 91% of refining, and 94% of sintered permanent-magnet production — the ultra-strong magnets made from rare earths that power EV motors, wind turbines, and defense systems.
This means → from raw ore to finished magnet, China holds a dominant position at every link; an export restriction at any single stage can directly disrupt downstream industries worldwide.
How did this dominance develop?
IEA notes that twenty years ago China held roughly 50% of sintered permanent-magnet output; today it is 94%. In plain terms = China spent two decades turning a half-share into a near-monopoly.
A bipartisan U.S. congressional report concluded this was not pure market competition: China treats minerals as geostrategic assets, coordinating control over decades under party leadership.
The report added that China's legal framework "effectively makes it illegal to publish prices that deviate from the government's wishes" — this reflects that pricing power itself has been folded into state control.
What exactly is the G7 committing to?
The joint statement outlines three core actions: build processing capacity to diversify supply, stockpile critical minerals at the government or industry level, and share market-stress early-warning data among members and aligned nations.
The statement does not name China but explicitly criticizes "non-market policies and practices, economic coercion, including arbitrary export restrictions and retaliatory measures," calling them harmful to economic security and resilience.
This means → G7 is treating critical minerals as a collective-security issue for the first time, upgrading from bilateral complaints to a multilateral framework.
What is the U.S. pursuing on its own?
Outside the G7 statement, the U.S. is separately developing a rare-earth price-floor mechanism — a guaranteed minimum price designed to prevent cheap dumping from killing new Western mining capacity before it scales.
The mechanism is still in the development and ally-lobbying phase; it has not been implemented.
In plain terms = the U.S. wants to give Western miners a safety net so they dare to invest in new plants, but allies have not all signed on yet.
Can this statement actually shift the supply-chain landscape?
IEA data offers a reality check: despite multiple large mineral deals backed by Western governments in recent years, China's market share has continued to rise.
This reflects a core difficulty — G7 is not building on a blank slate but confronting a structure embedded in global supply chains for two decades; the distance from statement to actual restructuring remains considerable.
This means → the real test of this alliance is not the wording of the communiqué but whether the West can deliver measurable supply-chain diversification over the next several years.
Content is for reference only, not financial advice.