James Kennedy is the president of ThREE Consulting, a St. Louis-based firm that specializes in rare earth elements and critical minerals. In this episode, Kennedy explains how the U.S. ceded its rare earths industry to China, how China is using its dominance over technology metals “as geostrategic tools, or weapons,” high-strength magnet production, what China’s dominance means for the U.S. auto, solar, and wind sectors, and what the U.S. should be doing to increase its production of critical metals and minerals.