Rare earths are a group of 17 metals that most people never think about, yet they are inside many things we use every day.
Turned into small but extremely strong magnets, they help electric cars drive, wind turbines spin and phones vibrate. They also go into factory machinery and some military equipment.
Despite the name, they are not truly rare. The problem is that they are spread thinly through the ground and are hard to separate from one another, which makes them expensive to mine and process.
Myanmar is one of the world's major sources of rare earths.
According to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), it was the world's fourth largest producer in 2024, accounting for 7.1% of global production, with an estimated 27,000 tonnes of rare earths produced, measured in rare earth oxide equivalent.
Much of Myanmar’s Rare Earths Go to China
Most of Myanmar's rare earth mining takes place in Kachin State, in the country's far north. USGS data show that Myanmar exported about 27,000 tonnes of rare earths to China in 2024, making China its leading buyer.
That may seem odd, because China is the world's largest rare earth producer. But Myanmar's mines are rich in heavy rare earths such as dysprosium and terbium, which are used in magnets that keep working at high temperatures.
China has tightened environmental regulations around rare earth mining, contributing to constraints on parts of its domestic supply.
According to the Stimson Center’s July 2026 issue brief, Rare Earth Mining in Myanmar Expands to TNLA-Held Territory, China introduced stricter environmental regulations in 2011 and tightened them again in 2016. At the same time, demand for heavy rare earths increased.
Myanmar has consequently become an important external source of heavy rare earths for China. Myanmar accounted for at least 60% of China’s rare earth imports between 2017 and 2024.
China Dominates the Supply Chain
Mining is only the first step. After extraction, rare earth ores are concentrated, chemically separated into individual oxides, refined into metals and alloys, and eventually used to make permanent magnets, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).
Among these, neodymium-iron-boron (NdFeB) magnets are among the strongest permanent magnets and are used in electric vehicles, wind turbines, industrial motors and other high tech applications. Sintered magnets account for the largest share of permanent magnet production.
China is dominant further down the supply chain.
According to the IEA’s Rare Earth Elements report, China accounted for about 60% of global mined production of the four rare earths used in magnets in 2024. Its share rose to 91% of refining and 94% of sintered permanent magnet production. China’s share of sintered magnet production was just 50% in 2005.
These figures cover only the four rare earths used in magnets: neodymium, praseodymium, dysprosium and terbium. That is narrower than the USGS data above, which count all rare earths. For those four, the IEA ranks Myanmar second after China in mining output, against fourth place in the USGS count.
Myanmar's mines are one link in a chain that China controls almost from end to end.
A Vulnerable Supply Chain
Rare earth magnets let electric motors and other machines deliver a lot of power from compact parts, and demand is rising fast.
The IEA says demand for magnet rare earths has doubled since 2015 and is projected to grow by more than 30% by 2030, with electric vehicles a key driver. That growth rests on a supply chain concentrated in one country, and in 2025 the risk became visible.
On 4 April 2025, China introduced export controls on seven heavy rare earth elements, along with related compounds, metals and magnets. The move was set out in Announcement No. 18 of 2025 by China’s Ministry of Commerce and General Administration of Customs.
Export volumes fell sharply in April and May, leaving automakers in the United States, Europe and elsewhere struggling to obtain permanent magnets. Some were forced to reduce production utilisation or temporarily shut factories.
The controls targeted heavy rare earths, and that is where Myanmar comes in as one of China's main outside sources of them. That links a remote mining region in northern Myanmar to car factories in the United States and Europe.
