Rafael Moreno says market is ‘nervous’ as Trump-Xi summit looms.
The head of a mining company hoping to supply the EU with rare earths in two years’ time has said it is “paramount” to end China’s stranglehold on the supply of the raw materials used in everything from cars to wind turbines and military jets.
As Donald Trump and China’s president, Xi Jinping, prepare to meet on Thursday in their second summit of the year, Rafael Moreno said it was also “imperative” that they do a deal for Beijing to ease up, once again, on its threat to ban exports of rare earths.
“The market is nervous,” said Moreno, the managing director of the Australia-listed Viridis Mining and Minerals, which has assets in Brazil, Australia and Canada.
China first brought in controls on earth exports in April 2025, hitting the auto industries in the EU, UK, US and Japan hard.
After a summit last October with Trump in South Korea, Xi agreed to suspend the introduction of even stricter global restrictions, but only for 12 months.
“It cannot not be extended if they are to continue to have these presidents’ meetings regularly,” said Kurt Tong, a managing partner of the Asia Group, a Washington strategic advisory and public policy firm.
Viridis is already attracting attention in Brussels, where diversification of supply chains away from China is a top priority of Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president.
The EU trade commissioner, Maroš Šefčovič, will travel to Beijing for his own summit with China’s commerce minister, Wang Wentao, on 8 October to try to avoid a trade war.