What are rare earth minerals, and why are they central to Trump’s trade deal with China?

Workers transport soil containing rare earth elements for export at a port in Lianyungang. Reuters

The US trade deal with China seeks to resolve a major sticking point of their ongoing trade war: rare-earth minerals.

Despite multiple rounds of talks with US trade negotiators over the past several months, China continued to slow-walk promises to the Trump administration that it would free up crucial rare-earth metals, and earlier guarantees of expedited rare-earth licenses to US companies never materialized. Beijing even tightened earlier this month its controls by massively expanding its restrictions..

Under Thursday’s deal , China agreed to roll back those newly imposed rules, though the initial restrictions unveiled in April appear to remain in place.

The tussle over rare earth