18 hours agoShareSaveSuranjana TewariAsia Business Correspondent in EneabbaShareSaveGetty ImagesIn China, environmental damage from years of processing rare earths has led to chemicals and radioactive waste seeping into waterways – cities and people bearing the scars of decades of poor regulation.With rare earths, it’s not so much about the mining footprint, rather the processing that is a dirty business – because it involves extraction, leaching, thermal cracking and refining which produce radioactive components.”I think there is no metal industry that is completely clean… unfortunately, it’s a matter of picking your poison sometimes,” Professor Eksteen says.”In Australia, we’ve got mechanisms to handle that. We’ve got a legal environment and a framework to work with that to at least deal with it responsibly.”The EU has in the past accused China of using a “quasi monopoly” on rare earths as a bargaining chip, weaponising it to undermine competitors in key industries. The bloc – which is home to hundreds of auto manufacturers that so desperately need rare earths – said even if China has loosened restrictions on supplies, the threat of supply chain shocks remains.Even if building a brand new industry will take time, Australia seems to have a lot going for it in the rare earths race, as it tries to be a more reliable and cleaner source.And one that – crucially – is independent of China.Additional reporting by Jaltson Akkanath Chummar …
