Refining capacity is the greatest vulnerability in the United States’ critical minerals supply chain. After a decades-long campaign to price out competitors, China now dominates the refining sectors for many minerals and metals that are central to the global economy and to the US defense sector. In some sectors, Chinese firms account for as much as 90 percent of global capacity. This dominance is central to Beijing’s quest to recenter the international system away from the US and toward China.

Washington needs to engage in a strategic and sustained effort to escape this predicament—and African nations will play a critical role. Hudson Senior Fellow Joshua Meservey will host senior representatives from Rainbow Rare Earths, ReElement, and US Strategic Metals—firms on the frontier of the critical minerals industry—to discuss what this effort will entail. The discussion will cover the scale of the challenge, how the US government can better support domestic and allied refining, and how African nations can climb the critical minerals supply chains.