
Andhra Pradesh’s Rare Earth Strategy, 2025: The Political Economy of the Critical Minerals
The global transition to clean energy and advanced technology has turned rare earth elements (REEs) into "silent sovereigns" of the 21st-century economy. Modern geoeconomics shows that downstream processing capacity has become a greater source of strategic leverage than resource ownership, with refineries, separation plants and magnet manufacturing playing a central role. China currently commands approximately 90-92% of global refining capacity and nearly 92% of finished component manufacturing.1






