Major US steelmaker pivots to rare earth minerals as China tightens grip

A major U.S. steelmaker is looking to help kickstart domestic production of rare earth minerals amid China's move to block access amid its trade dispute with the Trump administration.Cleveland-Cliffs, a steelmaker headquartered in Ohio, announced the rare earths plan on the company's quarterly earnings call on Monday."Beyond steelmaking, the renewed importance of rare earths has driven us to re-focus on this potential opportunity at our upstream mining assets," said Cleveland-Cliffs' CEO Lourenco Goncalves on the earnings call. "It is our obligation to do so as a company with our geological fo