Australia's Lynas has the rare earths the West needs and the skills to economically produce them, CEO Amanda Lacaze said, adding that tapping existing resources was much easier than developing anew in other countries.

And Ukraine is willing to cut some kind of deal. Kyiv has been courting American investment since 2023. According to the New York Times, that push included a Trump-Zelensky meeting and visits to the US from Ukrainian officials pitching deals for lithium and titanium. The US and Ukraine are still discussing some kind of metals-for-security deal.

As President Donald Trump works to strike a deal to end the three-year war in Ukraine, an important piece of the negotiations for the president has revolved around accessing rare earth elements from the war-torn country as compensation for American military support.