Benchmark Mineral Intelligence is pleased to announce the expansion of its Rare Earths Price Assessment with 19 new price grades, bringing price transparency to a broader range of rare earth oxides and metals that are essential to modern technology. Cerium and lanthanum are used in catalysts, glass and polishing, while europium underpins the phosphors used in displays and lighting. Ytterbium, erbium, holmium and thulium are used in lasers and fibre optic amplifiers, gadolinium in medical imaging, and lutetium in the scintillators used for PET scans. Praseodymium-neodymium metal is the key feedstock for the permanent magnets used in electric vehicles, wind turbines and defence systems.

Benchmark Mineral Intelligence is pleased to announce the launch of its Gallium and Germanium Price Assessments, bringing price transparency to these critical mineral markets. Gallium and germanium are recovered as byproducts of aluminium and zinc processing, and both are essential to many modern technologies. Gallium is used in compound semiconductors, which underpin power electronics, 5G networks, LEDs and radar. Germanium is used in fibre optic cables, infrared optics, thermal imaging and the solar cells that power satellites. Both metals also have several applications important to the defence industry.

US buyers of flake graphite are shifting procurement from China to East Africa as the cost of imported Chinese flake soars. This comes on the back of slow and unpredictable Chinese export licences, combined with high freight costs, and the US tariff on Chinese natural graphite which came in effect in January. 

General Motors (GM) has cancelled its long-term rare earth permanent magnet (REPM) supply agreement with eVAC Magnetics, the US unit of Germany-based Vacuumschmelze (VAC), prompting an arbitration dispute. It comes following a 29% fall in US EV sales for GM in H1 2026 compared with H1 2025. Filings show a termination notice was issued on 1 July 2026, and eVAC began arbitration days later, alleging wrongful termination and seeking financial compensation. Signed in early 2023, this contract covered a minimum ten-year supply of neodymium-iron-boron (NdFeB) permanent magnets produced at the Sumter, South Carolina, plant with a capacity of 2,000tpa.