China’s ban on critical minerals to be felt across ‘all branches’ of US military

By Seong Hyeon Choi – scmp.com

China’s export ban on critical minerals to the United States could disrupt more than 1,000 US weapons production systems, according to a defence intelligence company report.

The analysis, published on December 3 by Govini, found that more than 20,000 individual parts used by the Pentagon and the US coastguard are captured under the ban, announced earlier this month by the Chinese commerce ministry.

The impact of the ban on the critical minerals antimony, gallium and germanium – used in everything from bullets and cables, to nuclear weapons, night vision goggles and even EV batteries – will be felt across all branches of the military, the report said.