Don’t fall for the hype about China’s critical-minerals controls

READING some of the commentary about looming shortages, one would think America is doomed after China imposed export controls on five so-called critical minerals this month. Ignore the hype – the US will be fine.

Rather than using the term currently bandied about, I prefer the moniker everyone used when I arrived at the commodity markets a quarter of a century ago: minor metals.

Naturally, the latter is a lot less rousing than the former, which explains why every miner digging for them rebranded itself as a critical-minerals producer. That sounds a lot sexier – helpful for talking up a company’s share price.