Taiwan may work with US on rare earths: KungCOLLABORATION: Taiwan and the US could jointly find solutions to weaknesses in supply chain resilience for critical materials, focusing on mining and initial refinementBy Meryl Kao / Staff reporterTaiwan is likely to purchase rare earths from the US in the future, and is also in talks with Australia and Canada to strengthen global rare earth supply chain security, Minister of Economic Affairs Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) said yesterday. At the time, Kung said the two sides would establish working groups to advance cooperation in areas including artificial intelligence, digital infrastructure, critical materials and drone supply. A mining/crushing supervisor at MP Materials displays crushed ore before it is sent to the mill at the MP Materials rare earth mine in Mountain Pass, California, on Jan. 30, 2020. The rare earth supply chain can broadly be divided into three stages — mining, initial separation and refining — and Taiwan’s international cooperation would focus mainly on mining and initial separation, Kung said. The ministry previously estimated annual domestic rare earth demand at about 1,500 tonnes, and expects the ITRI refining capabilities to supply about one-third of that amount, he said.

Source: Taipei Times February 11, 2026 17:14 UTC