A bachelor’s in rare earths? In China, there are schools for that

EVERY year, several hundred young adults head to the steppes of northern China to learn about rare earths at schools like the Inner Mongolia University of Science and Technology.

After completing undergraduate study, they may venture a few kilometres up the six-lane Rare Earths Street in Baotou, where they can work for state-owned refiners that convert the critical minerals into magnets that power jet engines, electric vehicles and wind turbines.

Or, the graduates may pursue further studies at the nearby Baotou Rare Earth Research Institute – roughly 150 km (93 miles) from the world’s largest rare earths mine.

US President Donald Trump and other Western leaders have pledged billions of dollars in investments to break China’s chokehold on rare earths refining – a powerful lever Beijing has wielded in its trade war with Washington.

But China still holds a significant advantage in the pipeline of talent that it has developed over decades in places like Baotou.

China has created an ecosystem of more than 40 specialist rare-earth laboratories that produce cutting-edge research, supplemented by at least 11 universities and technical colleges that collectively enroll more than 500 students annually in rare earths degree programmes, a Reuters examination has found.

That accumulated expertise sustains Beijing’s grip on global supplies of refined rare earths.

Reuters for the first time tallied the scale of China’s rare earths research and education system, drawing on research papers, course materials, and interviews with 11 Western mining executives and researchers who have spent extensive time in China.

It reveals a close relationship between academia and industry that helps Chinese companies produce rare earths quickly and at low cost.

“In China, I used to hire kids right out of university and they’re immediately productive,” said Constantine Karayannopoulos, former chief executive of rare earths companies Neo Performance Materials and Molycorp.

“Anywhere else I need to train them for three years.”

Beijing is now tightly guarding this expertise: It has over the years increased restrictions on exports of rare earths technology and equipment.

China has also limited contact between industry professionals and foreigners, with some technicians having been ordered to surrender their passports, according to three people familiar with the matter.

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Scientists at the National Engineering Research Center for Rare Earths in Beijing developed a new technology, which state-owned Gansu Rare Earth New Materials adopted in 2023 at a refining facility that can churn out 50,000 metric tonnes of highly processed rare earths annually.

That is five times what Australia’s Lynas Rare Earths, the largest rare earths company outside China, produced in the 2025 fiscal year.

China produces over 90 per cent of the world’s processed rare earths and rare earth magnets.

Course materials published by some of the universities and reviewed by Reuters also show a heavy focus on meeting the needs of industry.

Students majoring in rare earths engineering at the Inner Mongolia University receive more than 100 hours of teaching in courses such as rare earths chemistry and material science.

One of the foundational courses is done in partnership with rare-earths labs and companies, and students have the option of attending lectures at corporate facilities.

The 70 students that the Jiangxi University of Science and Technology (JXUST) told state media are set to enroll in its newly created rare earths degree will study the supply chain from processing and metallurgy to magnets.

Before graduating, students will also work on research projects with companies.

David Parker, a rare earths expert at Britain’s Durham University who reviewed the Chinese institute’s course outline for Reuters, described it as “highly specialised” and reflective of the “pre-eminent position of China in rare earth science and engineering.”

Chinese rare earths engineering postgraduates are often more narrowly focused in their fields of research than would be the case elsewhere, said Portuguese physicist Luís Carlos, who has visited research institutes in the country for nearly 20 years.

“But if you think about people as small parts of a big machine, then this is good for the machine,” he said.

Some Chinese universities have explicitly acknowledged that they are training geopolitical assets.

Rare earths are “core bargaining chips” in global politics, Li Chaozhong, dean of JXUST’s rare earths programme, told state broadcaster CCTV in April.

* The writers are from Reuters

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المصدر: New Straits Times