The origin of China’s dominance of rare earths can be traced to an iron ore mine near Baotou in the country’s north, 50 miles from the Mongolian border. It was April 1964 and Chinese geologists had discovered that the mine also held the world’s largest deposit of rare earths, a set of 17 metals that have become essential ingredients for today’s global economy. Deng Xiaoping, then a high-ranking Chinese Communist Party official, visited the remote desert mine, owned by a military steel maker, to inspect the massive cache. “We need to develop steel, and we also need to develop rare earths,” declared Mr. Deng, who over a decade later would emerge as China’s top leader.

Full analysis : Inside China’s Six-Decade Campaign to Dominate Rare Earths.