Inter–imperialist contradictions are now most prominently visible against the background of the redistribution of deposits of rare earths and rare metals - the "oil of the XXI century", which are vital in the modern technological context of the development of productive forces.

Today, they are used in high-tech products in various industries from medicine to the military-industrial complex and oil refining, and the leading capitalist powers are striving to increase their production and production. Currently, we are talking about 17 elements of rare earth metals (REM) and 50 to 55 elements of rare metals, which are in urgent need of the high-tech industry.

Usually, the battery of every smartphone contains lithium from Chilean deposits, Indonesian nickel, as well as cobalt extracted from Congolese mines in Africa controlled by Chinese corporations and using the labor of local children. In total, at least 8 rare earth metals are used in modern cell phones alone.

As a result, only from 2017 to 2024, global REM production tripled, amounting to 390 thousand tons according to the USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2025. [1]

Naturally, due to the growing shortage, prices for REM and rare metals have also crept up. For example, from 2021 to 2023, lithium carbonate prices increased by more than 400%, and then fell by 80%. This drastic change not only shook the automotive market, but also signaled a new era – an era of struggle for rare earths and rare metals within the framework of global capitalist competition for resources.

There are already several geological massifs that the current high–tech industry relies on, such as the lithium triangle in Latin America, cobalt mines in the center of Africa, or Indonesian nickel deposits. The production of smartphones and electric vehicles is impossible without the raw materials extracted there. 

Naturally, the extraction of REM and rare metals is a very dirty industry in an ecological sense, requiring the mass use of pesticides, leading to the appearance of hundreds of millions of tons of waste rock, associated radioactive contamination of the area due to the presence of caesium, thorium and uranium in the areas of occurrence, poisoning of groundwater and the withdrawal from agricultural circulation of millions of hectares of land without possibilities of further reclamation.

This was largely dictated by the transition to a "green economy", as a result of which six times more REM and rare metals are now required for the production of one electric vehicle than for the production of cars with an internal combustion engine, and nine times more for an onshore wind power plant than for a gas-fired power plant.

The irony of the situation is that the development of "clean technologies" requires an increase in dirty industries for the extraction and processing of ever-increasing volumes of minerals, especially REM and rare metals, thereby causing even greater harm to nature in different parts of the world than even traditional hydrocarbon production. 

The World Bank estimates in its Minerals to Combat Climate Change report that mining of minerals such as graphite, lithium, and cobalt could increase by 500% by 2050 to meet the growth needs of high-tech industries. [2] Thus, this leads to the search and development of new deposits in different parts of the world and to increased competition for REM and rare metals.

In fact, tectonic changes are taking place before our eyes, as now, instead of hydrocarbons, REM and rare metals are becoming the new "21st century oil" – the fuel of a new technological stage. Something similar really happened earlier with oil at the end of the 19th and in the 20th century, for the deposits and territory of transportation of which there was an inter-imperialist struggle, only now other raw materials are coming on the scene, although this does not eliminate the needs of monopolies in classical minerals and natural resources.

Scientific and technological competition between the leading capitalist centers, which also manifests itself in the race for the production of new types of fifth-generation weapons in order to re-equip armies, also requires a sharp increase in the consumption of REM and rare metals and leads to the search and development of new deposits, to an increase in production volumes, as well as in the desire to localize their processing within the leading capitalist powers.

Naturally, the main competitive struggle has now developed conditionally between the United States, the EU and the United Kingdom on the one hand, and China, along with the BRICS countries, on the other. Although conflicts and attempts to improve their position at the expense of other or weaker players periodically break out within these blocks.

Thus, control over the extraction, processing and distribution of these crucial minerals now outlines new front lines in the global struggle for hegemony in the imperialist pyramid. 

We are already witnessing the active use of the REM in trade wars as an instrument of influence from China, which still holds a monopoly position in this area. So, in April 2025, Beijing, in response to the first package of duties from Donald Trump, imposed its own duties of 34% on all American goods, and also announced export restrictions on the supply of seven rare earths to the United States: gadolinium, dysprosium, scandium, samarium, terbium, lutetium and yttrium.

These elements are important precisely for the production of space, aviation, and automotive equipment, and especially for the production of high-precision weapons. [3]

Beijing had previously imposed similar restrictions on shipments of germanium, antimony, gallium, and graphite to the United States. According to American journalists, praseodymium and neodymium, which are used in the production of super-powerful magnets, have not yet been sanctioned by China, but only in order to drastically reduce their supply in the near future as a means of pressure. [4]

The American industry, in fact, is becoming a hostage to individual REMS and their shortage, which is a real lever of influence in the hands of China and other BRICS countries. As an example, a special critical situation has developed due to the shortage of rhodium.

According to the US Geological Survey, the cessation of supplies of three key metals — rhodium, niobium and samarium — could lead to losses for the American economy in the amount of up to $ 80 billion per year. While the situation with rare earth metals, dominated by China and the BRICS countries, mainly affects the defense industry, rhodium poses a much larger threat. [5]

This rare platinum group metal finds application not only in the manufacture of automotive catalysts, but also in the chemical industry. Without it, it is impossible to obtain such important products as nitric and acetic acids, menthol and modern fuels. This means that there is a real possibility of a complete shutdown of entire industrial sectors.

The main problem lies in its exceptional rarity, and the complexity of production causes its high cost – more than 7 thousand dollars per ounce, which is almost twice the price of gold. The annual global production of rhodium is only 23 tons. The overwhelming share (80%) is accounted for by the Republic of South Africa, followed by Russia with 10%, that is, 90% are accounted for by the BRICS countries. 

There is a similar shortage in the supply of terbium and dysprosium, which ensure the resistance of magnets to high temperatures. It got to the point that in 2022, due to a shortage of such magnets, Lockheed Martin stopped producing F-35 fighter jets. It turned out to be impossible to produce engines for such fifth-generation aircraft, which is why the US Congress had to urgently allocate an additional one billion dollars in order to overcome the deficit by arranging supplies from other countries.

But even more damage in the framework of trade wars may be caused by the suspension of supplies of REM and rare metals from China to the United States and Taiwan, used in the production of microchips, which will lead to the paralysis of a number of branches of the entire Western industry. This is the conclusion reached by Sunita Raja, a professor at the Institute of International Trade in New Delhi (India), who stated that the prospects for such an escalation were not bright.

"If China uses rare earth materials, which are used in the production of chips, as a weapon, then the conflict will take a terrible turn," she believes. [6]

Why is China the leading leader in such a race for the production of REM and rare metals? It already controls 70% of the world's REM production and more than half of its lithium, nickel and cobalt processing facilities. Moreover, 90% of the processing and 93% of the production of rare earth magnets also ended up in China. How did he manage to do this? 

In fact, such monopolization allows Beijing to strategically dominate by regulating supplies to the global REM market, keeping prices for these resources low in order to prevent other corporations from mastering their production, and by doing so, keeping Western powers dependent on Chinese metals under market control.

Since the early 90s, as part of Deng Xiaoping's capitalist reforms, China has abandoned harsh environmental protection measures in mining and especially REM in order to build an industry for their processing and production. Initially, only state-owned companies were involved in this, and the authorities planned to subsidize this industry even at a loss. Now there is also a system of compensation for private contractors from the state for all expenses, which makes it possible for current Chinese corporations to work in this field with low or even negative profitability.

As a result of this policy, even separate zones have been created to extract these elements from the depths. Thus, light metals began to be mined in northern Inner Mongolia, heavy metals in the south of the country using chemical methods.

Moreover, in 1995, state-owned corporations from China acquired American factories for the production of magnets, and then transported all the industrial equipment to themselves. As a result, this industry ceased to exist in the United States by 2004, and work at the Mountain Pass mine was suspended. This fit into the concept of transferring dirty technologies from the West to third world countries, but as a result, American and European competitors lost infrastructure, and Beijing gained a technological advantage and a major position in the global market.

China's strategic advantage in this sensitive area is its concentration and absolute superiority in the scientific and production sector. According to Elon Musk, in this technological competition, it does not matter who is engaged in mining, namely, who controls the technological process of processing these metals. And China is now the only capitalist power that has developed the capacity to cover the entire chain of work with 17 rare earth metals.

According to Marina Zhang, associate professor at the Institute of Australia-China Relations at the University of Technology Sydney, five years ago, one hundred doctors of science worked in this field only in China and none in the West, and over the past two years, more than a thousand educated engineers have been hired at several Chinese research institutes related to the processing of REM. In general, according to her data, the gap between the West and China in this industry is 10-15 years and it will be difficult to overcome it in the coming years. [7]

As a result, today China tightly controls the export of rare earth metals, allowing supplies only in such volumes as to prevent the formation of large reserves abroad. At the same time, the country maintains low prices, which prevents the emergence of new players in the market. For example, over the past year, the average price of unprocessed rare earths has fluctuated approximately in the range of 50-60 dollars per kilogram, despite the fact that the cost of extraction and processing in China is below 30 dollars per kilogram. This makes competition almost unprofitable. 

In fact, this pressure tool has been actively used by China since 2010, when it imposed an embargo on the supply of REM to Japan, which prompted Tokyo to form its own base for the accumulation and recycling of metals from recyclables. But so far, Japanese concerns, even by teaming up with American ones, have not been able to achieve serious success in this direction, and so far, the volumes of extraction and processing of REM on the Japanese islands are on a very limited scale.

REM is also necessary to carry out a large-scale rearmament of the US army and its satellites with new-generation samples as part of the next technological stage, which is also unthinkable without involving huge amounts of these metals. Within the framework of the new budget for 2026, 1.5 trillion dollars have been allocated, a significant part of which will be used to produce new equipment, modernize the fleet and the nuclear triad, i.e. the structure of the strategic nuclear forces of the state, consisting of three independent components of the delivery of nuclear weapons (land, sea, air), which will also require significant amounts of REM and rare metals. 

For example, 400 kilograms of REM are needed to produce one F-35 fighter, 2,300 kilograms for a new generation destroyer, and 4,100 kilograms for a Virginia-class submarine. As a result of the growing shortage of REM, Washington was forced to restart the extraction of rare metals at the Mountain Pass mine in California.

At the moment, as a result of such an increase, the United States already produces 12% of REM (45 thousand tons per year), being in second place after China with its 70%, despite the fact that the United States has only 2% of the proven reserves in the world, or 2.1 million tons. 

The paradox of the situation lies in the fact that despite the large volumes of ore production, Americans cannot process it domestically and as a result produce only 1.5 – 2 thousand tons of pure REM. As a result, the bulk of the extracted raw materials is exported from the United States to China, and from there the Americans buy back REM oxides or pure metals. 

Thus, Washington was confronted with the problem of lagging behind and lack of capacities in the field of REM processing. As a reaction, even under Biden, a program for the development of new deposits within the states was adopted. Plus, in 2023, $200 million was allocated, including for the construction by MP Materials of a neodymium magnet manufacturing facility in Texas. 

As a response to China's monopolization of the REM market, the United States is trying to take control not even of production, but of all the REM deposits available outside China. Now this is Washington's main strategy in an attempt to turn the situation around and concentrate a significant part of the raw materials in its hands. This is also done on the assumption that the existing industrial base for the processing of REM will be restored or developed in the USA and Western countries, which will take at least several years.

Therefore, Donald Trump announced the use of the REM of Ukraine through direct control as a result of the conclusion of a special agreement, then began to talk about building cooperation with Russia on the extraction of REM, subsequently announced that he wanted to take control of the REM of Canada and Greenland, and most recently he spoke about the acquisition of REM deposits in the Congo.

Actually, the crisis with Greenland is also tied to Washington's desire to seize the REM deposits, estimated at tens of millions of tons located on the island. This is an integral part of the concept of fighting for the Arctic and strengthening the Pentagon's military presence there. 

Against this background, we also remember the shelling of the territory of Nigeria by American missiles at the end of December 2025 against the alleged bases of Islamist groups. But we must understand that in addition to oil, this country is also rich in REM, which produces 19 thousand tons of REM per year. In practice, this is a signal to local authorities about Washington's desire, in addition to the desire to establish itself in the oil and gas sector, to seize all the available REM reserves in this country. The White House is now insistently demanding that the Nigerian government abandon agreements and further deals with China in this area.

Moreover, the civil war in Myanmar, the world's third largest producer of REM after China and the United States, with production of 31,000 REM per year, is also largely tied to the desire to establish control over the industry by American capital and squeeze out Chinese corporations. In practice, there is a real armed confrontation between the proxy forces of the United States and China in order to establish control over the extraction of REM.

According to recent reports, Washington has issued an ultimatum to the current official authorities of the country with a proposal to abolish all customs tariffs and provide trade preferences in exchange for access to investments in the extraction of REM from companies from the United States.

The United States is doing the same thing in Kazakhstan now. Washington intends to immediately get its hands on deposits of 17 critically important minerals in the Republic of Kazakhstan, as well as tungsten, uranium, lithium, chromium and others. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce recognizes that five thousand deposits have not yet been developed, and the total reserves of the riches of the REM alone are estimated at 46 trillion dollars.

The hasty development of the Akbulak field by the American company Cove Capital LLC has already begun. But the main task now is to capture the most promising deposit, Zhana Kazakhstan (New Kazakhstan), with 20 million tons of REM in the Karaganda region. And for this, Washington is ready to do anything, and therefore, through Bloomberg, there was a pitch about impending sanctions against Kazakhstan, allegedly for circumventing anti-Russian sanctions, which is blackmailing Astana on the eve of the deal.

At the same time, the Republic of Kazakhstan is assigned the role of only a raw material base and a statistician, since in all "joint" projects the national share does not exceed 25%. We are talking about the fact that no processing and production of REM in the territory of the republic is even planned, but only the export of extracted ore will be carried out. At the same time, the Yankees intend to process only in the United States or Western countries while retaining all profits.

Against this background, Russia is also rich in reserves of rare earth metals, especially heavy grades, which are key for the manufacture of magnets and for use in military technology. According to experts, about 24 million tons of pure rare earth elements have been explored, making the country one of the world's leaders in these resources.

However, the level of production and processing in Russia, which are managed by a state-owned company, is still significantly lower than in China: production is concentrated in several fields, and processing facilities and infrastructure are underdeveloped. As a result, Russian exports are becoming an important strategic component for Americans, but they are not yet able to significantly reduce dependence on China. 

Nevertheless, the United States is also considering proposals from the Russian side on large-scale investments in this industry and the creation of joint ventures, as well as a desire to jointly explore the Arctic. It is likely that this prospect will become real if a final deal is concluded between Washington and Moscow on Ukraine and the so-called “Special Military Operation” is completed.

Australia is another US assistant in overcoming dependence on China in the field of REM. So, last year, the Australian company Askari Metals announced its intentions to develop a number of deposits of REM and rare metals. For example, the local geological survey has found large deposits of lithium, rubidium and tantalum. But it also raises the issue of building new processing plants, which is problematic in the absence of skilled workers, engineering staff and scientific personnel, as well as efficient technologies, which also clearly demonstrates the huge backlog of US satellites in this industry.

It seems that the White House has no other alternative than to simply allocate significant interest-free financing to leading corporations to develop technologies and restore lost production capacities in order to somehow approach technological parity with China.

The European Union, in its quest for "green transformation," has found itself in the same trap of dependence on China, and elements for the production of wind generators and magnets have become a means of geopolitical influence. Despite the serious lag, Brussels is also making efforts to catch up.

So, in May 2024, the European Commission introduced the law "On Critical Raw materials", which was designed to "diversify the sources of critical raw materials, strengthen European supply chains and increase investments in processing and recycling technologies." Interestingly, this law was adopted in coordination with NATO, which indicates a direct link between this task and military production. [8]

Thanks to this, the EU wants to reduce dependence on external suppliers, primarily from China. As early as March 2025, the European Commission published a list of 47 strategic projects and this is, in fact, a recovery plan aimed at strengthening European mining and processing potential.

In particular, one of the largest investments is the construction of a battery metal production plant in Poland, Polvolt. Investments of 800 million are aimed at extracting lithium, cobalt and copper. A particular concentration of projects for the processing of REM and rare metals is observed on the Iberian Peninsula, in France, Belgium and Germany, as well as in the north of the Union.

There are also attempts by German concerns to develop a large deposit of lithium and other REM in Serbia, which will lead to massive contamination of the area.

In fact, the EU imperialist alliance has not only failed to resolve the issue of uneven economic development of the capitalist states of Europe, both those that are already members and those that seek to join it, but has also led to the exploitation of the mineral resources of less capitalistically developed countries under worse conditions and in in the interests of developing the industry of the most powerful states (for example, Germany and France).

Actually, the EU is trying to solve this problem on its own, because despite the fact that it is still formally in the same imperialist bloc, it is also a competitor for the United States. Therefore, there are constant attempts by French President Macron and German Prime Minister Merz to reach an agreement with China on the unhindered supply of REM for European industry.

Kazakhstan and Central Asia are also becoming an application destination for European corporations. For France, this is generally a chance to make up for its losses of lithium, gold and uranium in Africa, since the extraction of all these elements is already being mastered in Kazakhstan. For example, the French corporation ERAMET will mine lithium in the Aral Sea region, seeking to pocket zirconium and rutile deposits as well. SAFRAN is actively negotiating with the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan on the extraction of rhenium, a metal indispensable in the military–industrial complex.

The German companies Knauf Gruppe, GP Gunter Papenburg AG, Roxtec, and the German Lithium Institute (ITEL) have joined forces to form a consortium and control 12 lithium deposits in Eastern Kazakhstan. They are also building a lithium processing plant, which brings German capital to a high level in this industry. [9]

Thanks to Kazakhstan, the British company Ferro-Alloy Resources Limited took the first place in the world in vanadium production, which not only captured all deposits of this metal, but also built an ore processing plant with a capacity of up to 22,400 tons of vanadium pentoxide per year and installed equipment for processing products to ferro-vanadium. All these activities result in an environmental disaster for the Republic of Kazakhstan, as the extraction of one ton of vanadium generates more than 100 tons of waste, and pesticides poison the area and groundwater, making agricultural activities in one of the regions of the republic impossible. [10]

In fact, Kazakhstan and Central Asia have become a treasure trove for EU and UK corporations.

After the events in Venezuela, Nigeria, attempts to strangle Cuba, the preparation of a new imperialist war against Iran, and the ongoing civil war in Myanmar, violent methods are increasingly being used by American imperialism to maintain hegemony and redistribute resources.

Interestingly, even in negotiations with Tehran, Washington also links the possibility of concluding a “peace” agreement with obtaining access for American companies to Iran's minerals, primarily to hydrocarbons and, again, to deposits of rare earths and rare metals. The fact that such proposals were announced during meetings of representatives of the diplomatic departments of the two countries at the end of 2025 was reported by the American television channel CNN. And according to journalists, the parties should return to this issue again during the next round of negotiations, since the United States is very interested in the Iranian REM. [11]

Therefore, it is impossible to exclude the emergence of new hotbeds of such conflicts through open military intervention or diplomatic blackmail by the United States in different parts of the world, which may in the future provoke a response from China or lead to the use of the same methods by other capitalist countries in different parts of the world.

In addition to Iran, the Americans are actually trying to recapture their deposits in Africa from Chinese companies, in particular in the Republic of the Congo. This Central African country is full of contradictions. On the one hand, poverty, political instability and conflicts, and on the other, the absolute dominance of cobalt mining – more than 70% of global production. 

However, China is the largest economic player in the republic. Already in the first decade of the 21st century, Beijing launched an offensive and began buying up stakes in key mines. State-owned giants such as China Molybdenum, which already controls more than 60% of the country's cobalt production, worked there. In exchange for the concessions, Congo received Chinese investments in infrastructure, namely roads, hospitals, and energy.

It was a model of minerals in exchange for capitalist development. A model that was paid for by the grueling labor of local workers. 

Vince Beiser, author of the book "Power Metal" and a researcher on the situation of workers in the Congo, writes about the working conditions of miners:

"The worst mines in the Republic of Congo seem to have been taken from a nightmare. Giant corporations selling products containing Congolese cobalt are worth trillions, and people extracting cobalt from the ground are barely making ends meet in extreme poverty and immense suffering. They exist on the edge of human life in an environment that foreign mining companies treat as a toxic landfill. The most terrible conditions prevail in relatively small unauthorized mines, called "artisanal". It is estimated that up to two hundred thousand people work in such conditions, providing 15-20% of the total volume of national cobalt production." [12]

According to witnesses, miners dressed in flip-flops and shorts with flashlights on their heads spend whole days in deep underground tunnels mining cobalt using hand tools. Helmets and safety glasses, rare accessories, and dangerous dust are the least of their worries. In fact, the working conditions there are at the level of the 18th and 19th centuries.

Washington also does not remain indifferent, and the American administration and companies such as Tesla and Ford are trying to become owners of this farm themselves. President Biden also launched a fund to support investments in Africa in order to regain influence in Africa that had been lost in favor of China. The White House has also tried to interfere in Congolese contracts in recent years, insisting on a review of Chinese agreements, as well as an audit of the well-known Sino-Congolese agreement concluded in 2008 between the Government of the republic and Beijing. 

Under this agreement, Chinese corporations became owners of 15 of the 19 cobalt and copper deposits in the country. But the change of owners and the arrival of American owners does not mean an alternative, since no one is going to improve the working conditions and the situation of workers, and only the traffic for the export of extracted ore will change. It is possible that this will actually happen soon as a result of the open intervention of the Donald Trump administration with the use of force.

Interestingly, the American edition of The Washington Post recently published, in fact, a program article by French entrepreneur Arnaud Bertrand regarding the White House's new power strategy on the issue of oilfield redevelopment. [13] It ridicules Beijing, which, according to the author, is not ready to use armed force to defend its investments in infrastructure and the loot.

"China can spend all the money on infrastructure as much as it wants... But in a critical situation, only military force is important," the author notes. He argues that China's approach has been a "colossal waste of money" because "control of infrastructure can be changed" through "regime change" led by the United States, and "ownership of any asset can be abolished."

All this is reminiscent of the gangster rhetoric of predators dividing other people's property. However, it is doubtful that Beijing will now dutifully give up its assets in Africa and Myanmar, as well as reverse its pressure on Taiwan. Therefore, we should expect an increase in the contested countries.

Moreover, there are other examples of interference, when a series of military coups supported by Russia in the Sahel region in West Africa in 2021-2023 led to the emergence of new governments in Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso, which initiated the nationalization of mines for the extraction of lithium, uranium and gold from French, German and American concerns. However, now the French government, as revenge, according to the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), is trying to organize counter-coups and assassinations of the leaders of Burkina Faso, Mali, the Central African Republic (CAR) and Madagascar in response. [14]

At the same time, various players in the region are also using rebel groups from among nomadic tribes, as well as Islamist terrorist organizations, which have become a real tool for the redistribution and seizure of deposits of REM and rare metals in West and Central Africa.

And if the 80s and 90s, as well as the noughties, were characterized by the transfer, including of processing production to Asian countries and to the so-called "third world" countries due to cheap labor and costs, now with the increase in consumption of REM and rare metals, we see the desire of the United States, Great Britain and the EU, on the contrary, to concentrate the processing of these raw materials in their own countries, as opposed to China, and also to prevent countries with limited mining capabilities from obtaining technology. 

Practically due to this, partial reindustrialization of the USA, France and Germany is taking place, especially in high-tech industries and the processing of the same REM. In addition to Trump's programs, back in 2021, French President Emmanuel Macron presented a 30 billion euro plan to "revive and reindustrialize" France with a focus on "green energy," the semiconductor and pharmaceutical industries. [15]

In fact, such a reverse wave in the form of the reindustrialization of the old metropolises leads to an increase in unequal relations, which harm the less developed capitalist states. The EU and the USA refuse to process the same REM, but they are trying to impose expensive "green energy" in the form of the same wind farms and solar panels. The cost of electricity they generate is much more expensive than traditional coal or gas-fired power plants, and dependence on Western equipment and highly processed products puts an end to the attempts of capitalist states in Africa, Latin America and Asia to develop their own production, strengthening their positions within the global capitalist economy. Moreover, this is more often the fault of the most bourgeois classes of less powerful capitalist states, because they believe that through agreements with stronger imperialist powers and monopolies, and despite their content, they strengthen their positions in relation to the working class of their countries.

Meanwhile, the struggle for the redistribution of the resource base of REM and rare metals leads to increased internal political instability in third world countries, to the outbreak of proxy wars involving mercenary groups of Islamic terrorists and local separatist tribes, which is especially typical for African states. Overthrowing regimes through military coups or "color revolutions" in order to oust competitors and gain access to the extraction of raw materials have become the hallmark of all the leading capitalist powers in many parts of the world.

In fact, countries with rich deposits of these raw materials risk becoming the arena of fierce struggle between American, European and Chinese corporations and becoming the territory of current and future fronts of inter-imperialist clashes. Zones of such regional military conflicts may or are already becoming: Sahel countries in West Africa, Nigeria, Congo, a number of Latin American countries, Myanmar, Iran and possibly in the future Kazakhstan and Central Asia. It is there that the spheres of influence of the leading capitalist powers are being changed by various methods, which leads to instability and open clashes.

At the same time, trade wars are increasingly accompanied by blackmail and pressure from China, threats to stop or limit the supply of critical elements to the global market that the US military-industrial complex needs and the production of microchips in Taiwan, where 90% of their global production is concentrated. At the same time, the blocking or attack of Chinese troops on Taiwan could lead to the shutdown of entire sectors of the global industry with their complete collapse in the West.

At the same time, as a rule, during the redistribution of deposits, the leading capitalist countries operate within the framework of conditional blocks of the West and BRICS, although contradictions and competition arise within them. For example, there is a noticeable desire on the part of the EU countries, Great Britain and Canada to establish cooperation with China in this area of extraction and processing of REM, or there are attempts by Russia to establish joint extraction and processing of REM with the United States in Siberia and the Arctic.

This also suggests that the imperialist blocs have entered into a process of restructuring, which can be expressed in the Euro-Atlantic bloc and the CSTO, and the emergence of new military and political blocs, such as within the framework of the Organization of Turkic States with an enhanced role of Turkey or the further development of the "Peace Council" already around the United States.

Nevertheless, the contradictions and conflicts surrounding the division of deposits and processing capacities of REM and rare metals between the United States and China, as the main players fighting for global hegemony, will only grow out of the desire of capital to maintain economic growth and gain competitive advantages in the scientific and technical field in the process of transition to a new technological stage.

We must also understand that this fierce struggle for the redevelopment of REM deposits around the world is a purely inter-imperialist struggle. Moreover, it is impossible to consider a change of ownership or the conduct of fictitious "nationalizations" in order to transfer resources into the hands of other foreign capitalists as an "alternative", or even more so to consider Chinese corporations in Africa, Latin America and Asia as "progressive", allegedly carrying "socialism" through the development of local infrastructure under bonded conditions or imaginary "liberation" to the local peoples.

On the contrary, the struggle for REM and rare metals between world players will not only not change the situation of miners and metallurgists, as well as their working conditions, but will also plunge the population of countries where resources are being developed into even greater poverty with a reduction in crops and poisoning of soils and water resources. Looting, accompanied by civil wars, separatism, the growth of religious fundamental movements and constant coups in general, has led to a sharp deterioration of problematic social welfare systems and government entities in a number of regions.

Therefore, the true task of communists, class trade unions, and popular movements should be to expose the real goals of the monopolies, these global predators of valuable resources and increasing their profitability, which is to the detriment of the interests of peoples and the environment. There is a need to develop a revolutionary program of struggle against the plundering of mineral wealth by monopolies and the most powerful imperialist powers, which can only be a struggle for socialism, and not for a change of participation in one or another military-political bloc of the imperialists. Because only socialism with the socialization of the means of production and, consequently, mineral wealth can ensure that under workers' rule and a scientifically centralized planned economy, this mineral wealth can be used to meet modern national needs with respect for the environment, and not for the profit of capitalists.