A neodymium-iron-boron (NdFeB) magnet is the strongest permanent magnet you can buy at scale. It sits inside most electric vehicle motors, many wind turbines, missile guidance fins, drones, hard drives and phone speakers. Getting one made takes four separate industrial steps: mining the ore, separating it into individual rare earth oxides, turning those oxides into metal and alloy, then pressing and sintering the alloy into a finished magnet. China leads every one of those steps, and its lead gets bigger the further down the chain you go.

Since 2023 China has built a licensing system around the minerals and metals it dominates. The controls started with gallium and germanium and now cover rare earths, graphite, battery materials and the technology used to process them. This page lists each measure by date, notes what is suspended and what still applies, and gives a status table at the end. Last updated: 15 September 2026. Why these minerals matter China leads in refining for most strategic minerals.