Rare-earth industry in China

The People's Republic of China (PRC) is a leading producer and the dominant processor of rare-earth elements (REEs), which are used in technologies ranging from to permanent magnets through to electric vehicles (EVs) and wind turbines to consumer electronics. China is particularly dominant in the midstream separation and refining stages of the rare-earth supply chain and in downstream permanent-magnet manufacturing; the International Energy Agency estimated that China accounted for about 91% of global separation and refining production and 94% of sintered permanent magnet production in 2024.

China has economically extractable deposits of both light and heavy REE ores and has developed industrial-scale solvent extraction for refining them. Over the past decades, it has supplied the majority of global rare-earth demand and holds the world's largest known reserves; the United States Geological Survey reported China's reserves at 44 million tonnes (rare-earth-oxide equivalent) in its February 2026 Mineral Commodity Summaries.

The country also holds a dominant share of global rare-earth-related patents across the value chain; a 2026 patent landscape report based on the EPO's DOCDB simple patent family methodology identified 22,040 global patent families filed between 2014 and 2024 in rare-earth-related technologies, with China accounting for 81% of filings.

Since 2016, China has implemented export controls on certain rare-earth elements and rare-earth processing technology; in 2025, it introduced two waves of export controls covering rare-earth elements and related products and technologies, with the second wave later suspended for one year.

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