TMTPOST -- U.S.-listed rare earth and critical miners saw their shares outperforming the broader market on Thursday as China is moving to tighten export controls, prompting investors’ bets on the Trump administration’s aggressive move to boost the local supply chain.
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Two major stock market indexes S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite on Thursday dropped 0.28% and 0.08%, respectively, pulling back from their record high closes set a day earlier. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, edged down 0.52%, recording four straight sessions of declines.
Rare earth and critical mineral shares are among a few of winners that session. USA Rare Earth stock jumped 15%, NioCorp Developments and Ramaco Resources gained around 12%, Energy Fuels popped over 9%, and Albemarle climbed more than 5%. Shares of Trilogy Metals, surged 211% on Tuesday after the White House confirmed a partnership that give the Pentagon a 10% stake in Canadian miner, finished Thursday with a stock bounce of 3.8%.
Stocks of Lithium Americas, a Canadian miner that the U.S. Department last month agreed to take a 5% equity stake in, and MP Materials, America’s only integrated rare earth producer, rose over 2%. Owning the only operational rare earth mine in the U.S., MP Materials on July 10 said the U.S. Defense Department will become its largest shareholder after it agreed to buy $400 million of its preferred stock.
The Chinese government earlier Thursday announced export control measures on items related to superhard materials, rare earth equipment and materials, and batteries, effective on November 8, the state news agency Xinhua reported.
The move was made to safeguard national security and interests and to uphold international commitments including non-proliferation,China's Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) announced in two separate statements on its website.
"The two announcements, identified as Announcement No. 61 and No. 62 of 2025, are in accordance with relevant regulation including the Export Control Law and the Regulations on the Export Control of Dual-Use Items, with the approval of the State Council of China," a spokesperson for the ministry responded to a query about new export controls.
Announcement No. 61 requires foreign entities to apply for a license if they want to export products with certain rare-earth items sourced from China accounting for at least 0.1% of the good’s total value. Technologies and relevant date related to rare earth mining, smelting and separation, metal smelting, magnetic material manufacturing, and rare earth secondary resource recycling, as well as the assembly, debugging, maintenance, repair, and upgrade of related production lines are prohibited from export without permission, according to the announcement.
Export applications for the ultimate purpose of research and development (R&D), and production of 14-nanometer-and-below logic chips, the “brains” of electronic devices, memory chips with 256-layers or more, as well as manufacturing equipment, testing equipment and materials for manufacturing the semiconductors using the aforementioned process, or the R&D of artificial intelligence (AI) with potential military applications, will be subject to approval on a case-by-case basis, per the announcement.
Announcement No. 62 aims to impose restrictions on rare earth-related technologies. Exports of rare earth metals and oxide manufactured outside China yet involving Chinese relevant technologies in the process of rare earth mining, smelting and separation, metal smelting, magnetic material manufacturing, or rare earth secondary resource recycling should not be permitted without the export license.
Besides, other announcements the ministry issued target export curbs on five more rare earths, including holmium, europium, ytterbium, thulium, erbium-- plus certain lithium-ion batteries, graphite anodes and synthetic diamonds, as well as some equipment for making those materials.
The upcoming export controls on rare earth-related technologies complies with international norms for managing dual-use items, the China Chamber of Commerce to the EU (CCCEU) said on Thursday. It stress in a statement that China's transparent licensing and approval mechanism will provide support to the European Union firms that have legitimate trade needs. "Amid burgeoning China-EU cooperation, EU companies need not overstate concerns about the impact of China's rare earth export controls," the chamber said.
"In terms of the international situation, some countries, led by the US, have imposed high tariffs and technology blockades on China. By employing compliant measures to reasonably implement rare-earth controls, China can better protect its own trade interests," the CCCEU said in a statement.
The new export restrictions reflect Beijing’s efforts to reinforce its control on key industrial bases and technologies as Western countries seek to build up domesitic manufacturing and reduce reliance on China. For some industry insiders, the new measures indicated China is mirroring the U.S. semiconductor export controls that were used against them, with its own comprehensive extraterritorial control regime, except with rare earths.
“This is to raise the stakes and demonstrate China has leverage and cards to play,” said Dylan Loh, associate professor at Nanyang Technological University. “It’s done to put them in the strongest possible position in trade negotiations with the U.S.”
“It’s an economic equivalent of nuclear war—an intent to destroy the American AI industry,” said Dmitri Alperovitch, co-founder of the Silverado Policy Accelerator think tank. He called it a “blackmail tactic” ahead of a potential meeting between U.S. President Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping in South Korea in the coming weeks to continue trade talks, and didn’t think China will follow through on fully implementing the rule.
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