Hong KongCNN — Despite a 90-day truce in its trade war with the United States, China appears to be maintaining tight control over its rare earth exports – preserving a key source of leverage in future negotiations amid intensifying strategic rivalry with Washington....

Now that the United States has secured a deal to share the rights to Ukraine’s mineral reserves — including elements crucial for a range of high-tech applications, from powering electric vehicles to producing warplanes and tanks — the path to actually extracting the minerals is fraught with formidable challenges and uncertainty....

In signing a minerals deal, Ukraine has found a new way to tie the United States to its future, but it remains to be seen if it can guarantee long-term support from mercurial President Donald Trump....

The U.S. may abandon support for one of the few rare earths projects not controlled by China....

The rare-earth mineral dysprosium, used for magnets in electric-vehicle motors, is among exports China slowed in response to Trump’s trade war...

Senior administration officials are scrambling to stem economic damage from China’s restrictions on rare-earth exports, as President Donald Trump’s trade war risks cutting key industries and defense contractors off from supplies of metals crucial to production, according to three people familiar with internal deliberations....

Mining tycoon Gina Rinehart is a big backer of a handful of public companies working to break China’s near monopoly on the vital metals used to make everything from missiles to robots and CT scanners....

U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday ordered a probe into potential new tariffs on all U.S. critical minerals imports, a major escalation in his dispute with global trade partners and an attempt to pressure industry leader China....

As China imposes export controls on rare earth elements, the U.S. would be unable to fill a potential shortfall, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies — and this could threaten Washington’s military capabilities....

U.S. inaction on rare earths gives China ‘very powerful currency at the negotiating table,’ says CSIS researcher...

On Air Force fighter jets, magnets made of rare earth minerals that are mined or processed in China are needed to start the engines and provide emergency power....

TO WIN A game of Scrabble, start at the bottom of the periodic table. The 17 “rare earths” that reside there have longish names, such as dysprosium and praseodymium, which are replete with point-worthy letters. They share other traits, too. All are produced and used in minuscule amounts, yet are crucial to a range of high-tech goods, from batteries and renewables to weapons and medical devices. More important still, all are largely supplied to the world by China....