Skip to navigationSkip to main contentSkip to right columnADVERTISEMENTMichael KernTue, June 23, 2026 at 5:00 PM GMT+2 12 min readIn 2024, China announced export controls on antimony. It's a metal most people have never heard of, but antimony goes into more than 200 types of military munitions.Within weeks, the price went from $1,400 per ton to $38,000 — a 2,600% spike — and shipments to the United States fell 97%.Today, Beijing is setting up for something bigger. And REalloys (NASDAQ: ALOY) — a U.S.-based mine-to-magnet rare earth company — has spent years getting ready for it. The company holds an exclusive 80% offtake from the only non-Chinese rare earth processing plant in North America capable of processing heavy rare earths. And it operates its own metallization facility in Euclid, Ohio, and plans to source feedstock from the U.S., Canada, Brazil, Kazakhstan, and Greenland, which means no Chinese inputs at any step. The heavy rare earth materials at the center of China's next mineral weaponization, like dysprosium and terbium, are precisely the ones REalloys has spent years positioning to supply. While they're less widely discussed than light rare earths, heavy rare earths are the metals inside every drone motor, every missile guidance system, and every fighter jet engine the Pentagon fields. And in recent years, we've already seen Beijing tightening the screws on what are quickly becoming the most important elements on earth.China's Pattern Is Years in the MakingWhat happened with antimony wasn't an isolated incident. It was just the latest chapter in a long history of escalations from China that have only been picking up steam over the past three years.In July 2023, Beijing imposed export licensing on gallium and germanium — two metals critical to semiconductors and infrared optics.In August 2024, they did the same with antimony before prices spiked 2,600% and shipments collapsed. In December 2024, China escalated to an outright ban on gallium, germanium, and antimony exports to the United States.Then in April 2025, Beijing put seven heavy rare earth elements under export licensing — including dysprosium and terbium, the two materials that keep magnets stable at the extreme temperatures inside jet engines and drone motors.And in October 2025, China went even further, restricting the export of rare earth processing technology itself and asserting jurisdiction over any foreign-made product containing even trace amounts of Chinese-origin rare earth content.Every one of those moves has made REalloys' supply chain — built entirely outside China's reach — more valuable than it was the day before.Terms and Privacy PolicyEU DSA contactPrivacy & Cookie SettingsMore Info