The 17 “rare earth” minerals that are essential to so many high-tech products today, from electric cars to magnets and military systems, aren’t literally rare, but their mining and production is. Read more.

The global shortage of microchips has had a devastating impact on multiple industries, not least automotive manufacturers, who are expected to have lost some $210 billion in 2021 because they couldn’t get enough chips to drive the systems in their vehicles. But how did we get to this state of affairs?

Think it will be difficult to bring back manufacturing to the United States? Getting out of China isn’t so easy either.

It wasn’t too long ago that we began seeing signs of a return of manufacturing from China back to the U.S. Has someone flipped the script?

Can ethical sourcing practices really “change the world”?

Are we on target for making zero-emission vehicles account for half of all cars sold in the U.S. by 2030? Not without enough rare earth minerals to build them.

Is there any room for actual collaboration between suppliers and buyers, based on more than just price?