“The first phase of this deal is envisaged at approximately US$500 million of investments into Pakistan's critical minerals sector,” the Pakistani prime minister's office said last month.

The South Asian country has reportedly shippe d the first batch of rare earth elements to the US. Chinese media used to describe Pakistan as China's“iron brother,” meaning that the duo have very close diplomatic and trade relations. Both countries are now developing the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, a key part of Beijing's Belt and Road Initiative.

“Pakistan's five million metric tons of rare earths reserves, worth several trillion dollars, have suddenly become a new focal point in the strategic rivalry between China and the US,” a Shandong-based columnist says in an article titled“Pakistan's key minerals saved the US defense industry at the last moment.”

“American defense contractors urgently need these rare earths to sustain production of F‐35 fighter jets and nuclear submarines. Meanwhile, China, with 92% of the world's rare-earth refining capacity, retains control of the key extraction and purification technologies.”

He says that the actual value of underground rare earths lies in the separation technologies because 90% of the 250 rare-earth minerals discovered globally occur in mixed form.

“The extraction and purification of rare earths is like picking black beans from a bowl of sesame,” he says.“Even if the US invests heavily in Pakistan's rare-earth mining, the final products will likely fall short of military-grade standards without China's processing expertise.”

“Pakistan may have earned quick money by accepting US investment and granting mining rights for rare earth development,” says a Shanghai-based writer who identifies himself as a financial planner,“but whether this short-term gain will turn into a long-term benefit remains uncertain. Such a deal, made amid major-power rivalry, could prove risky.”

He adds:“It will not be easy for Pakistan to strike a political balance between China and the US, while any misstep could be costly. As long as Pakistan avoids actions that hurt China's core interests, the foundation of China–Pakistan friendship will remain strong. Pakistan needs to remember who its true brother is.”

China's rare-earth extraction relies mainly on solvent extraction and ion exchange, processes that use small chemical differences to separate elements. In solvent extraction, organic liquids pull specific rare earths from solution, while ion exchange uses resin columns to isolate ions. Because these elements share similar properties, separation is challenging and often requires additional steps, such as centrifugation or electrolysis, to achieve high purity.

Chinese media have praised chemist Xu Guangxian (1920–2015) for separating praseodymium and neodymium with countercurrent liquid-liquid extraction. Xu's work culminating in his 1974 success took place at a time when China was under Mao Zedong's control during the Cultural Revolution and facing severe restrictions on scientific research.

Born in 1920 in Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province, Xu graduated from Shanghai Jiaotong University in 1944 and later earned a PhD in physical chemistry from Columbia University in the US in 1951. After returning to China, he taught at Peking University. In 1972 his department received a military assignment to separate the rare earth elements praseodymium and neodymium, which were then difficult to separate because of their similar properties.

Xu completed the task two years later using a countercurrent extraction process, which separates metals by repeatedly washing them through liquid layers with different chemical affinities. He published his findings in 1975 and became a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1980.

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In fact, Xu was not the first to achieve this separation. Austrian chemist Carl Auer von Welsbach first isolated praseodymium and neodymium in 1885 through a process of fractional crystallization. In the mid-1950s, researchers at Argonne and Oak Ridge National Laboratories in the US advanced the science with liquid-liquid solvent extraction, establishing the technical foundation for achieving the 99.9% purity standards that define modern rare-earth refining.

China today maintains a dominant, near-monopoly position in the global supply of neodymium magnets, accounting for more than 85% of total production. These high-performance magnets are indispensable in advanced industries, powering the permanent-magnet motors of Tesla Model 3 vehicles, the flight control systems of F‐35 fighter jets and the vibration motors inside iPhones.

In China, well-known providers of rare earth extraction equipment include Zhengzhou Tiei Extraction Technology and Baotou Shibo Rare Earth Extraction & Equipment Co., Ltd.

Read: China halts US soybean imports to hit Trump's MAGA supporters

Follow Jeff Pao on Twitter at @jeffpao3

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