Inside the battle to control the world’s supply of rare earths

Back in 2009, Jim Kennedy, a consultant and entrepreneur of rare earths — a group of 17 metallic elements, including 15 lanthanides, crucial for modern technology — met with a top official at the Pentagon to discuss the future of these precious minerals.

“He was almost indifferent to the issue,” Kennedy tells The Post. “His dispassion was staggering. It was one of the most disappointing meetings in my life.”

Sixteen years later, that indifference has widely disappeared. Rare earths — used for everything from smartphones, electric cars and airplane engines to medical equipment, wind turbines and military applications like missiles and fighter jets — have become one of the most in-demand and politically contested industries in the world.

A miner carrying a heavy bag of

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