Gone Are the Days of Buying a 25 kg Drum of Rare Earths from China
Nowadays every kilogram is now tracked by at least eight state agencies from mine to container seal.
| Ministry / Bureau | What they do to your drum | Real-world tools & tricks |
|---|---|---|
| Ministry of Commerce – Bureau of Industry, Security, Import & Export Control | The single gatekeeper. Nothing leaves China without their electronic licence. | 45-day statutory review clock • “Dual-linkage” with Customs • 100+ page applications on Single Window platform |
| Ministry of Industry and Information Technology | Sets national mining & smelting quotas and tracks every kilo from mine → smelter → exporter. | RFID + QR code on every drum • Cloud ledger updated within 24 hours of any domestic transfer |
| Ministry of State Security | Runs the intelligence check: “Is this drum ultimately going to Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, or a Taiwanese missile lab?” | Secret “sensitive end-user” blacklist • Automatic denial if flagged |
| Ministry of Public Security | Criminal raids, seizures, GPS tracking of trucks and freight forwarders. | May 2025: 18-tonne samarium-cobalt seizure → drivers and forwarders jailed |
| General Administration of Customs | The physical choke point at every port. | 10–15 % random open-box rate • Hand-held LIBS guns • GPS-tracked container seals |
| State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission | Owns China Northern Rare Earth, China Southern Rare Earth, Minmetals Rare Earth, etc. | Executives lose 50–80 % of annual bonus for any licence violation |
| Ministry of Ecology and Environment | Environmental veto right on quota renewal. | Satellite imagery + drone flyovers of every tailings pond |
| National Development and Reform Commission | Can divert your inventory into the strategic stockpile at any moment. | Compulsory purchase orders on neodymium, praseodymium, dysprosium when domestic factories demand it |
Bottom line (2025–2026): Lead time 3–9 months • 20–80 % risk premium • Zero transparency on denials • Smuggling now carries prison time. The era of treating rare earths, gallium, germanium, graphite, and tungsten as normal commodities is over. They are now strategic materials policed like weapons-grade goods.
