China has added 10 US entities to its export control list, prohibiting exports of dual-use items from China to those companies with immediate effect from 22 June 2026. The Ministry of Commerce named rare earth and magnet developers MP Materials and USA Rare Earth in addition to eight other companies in defence-related industries. The measure is entity-specific rather than a blanket restriction on rare earth exports to the US. Beijing positioned the move as a response to recent US actions targeting Chinese military-linked companies, including additions to the Pentagon’s 1260H list. In practice, the policy escalates previous licensing controls into a full prohibition on dual-use exports to the named firms.

Andy Miller, chief executive of Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, opened Giga US 2026 in Washington, DC by outlining a rapidly evolving energy security landscape in the US, shaped by trade policy, geopolitics, and rising demand from emerging technologies. “Central to all of that and what's really become the bedrock in the question of how we reach true energy security, I believe, is the ability and the efficiency to store that energy,” Miller said. “All roads lead back to batteries.”

Conflict in the Middle East and the subsequent closure of the Strait of Hormuz led to sulphuric acid prices skyrocketing. The material is a key feedstock for the processing of many critical minerals used in the energy transition. Benchmark’s analysis shows that for some minerals, sulphuric acid is no longer a background reagent, but a primary cost driver. Prices provided by Acuity show that between the start of the war in Iran at the end of February and mid-April, sulphuric acid prices surged by more than double and sulphur prices rose by 50%, albeit with regional variations. “Sulphuric acid is a vital feedstock for many critical minerals, and the disruption to the sulphur market from the ongoing Middle East conflict has had knock-on effects across key markets,” said Will Talbot, Benchmark’s research manager for raw materials. “Not only do high acid prices increase the cost base of lithium, nickel, copper, manganese, phosphoric acid and rare earth refiners, a lack of physical sulphur availability has already led some of these metal and chemical refiners to cut production.”