At the 2025 Indonesia Mining Conference & Critical Metals Conference - 2025 Southeast Asia Tin Industry Conference, hosted by SMM Information & Technology Co., Ltd. (SMM), supported by the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs as a government supporter, and co-organized by the Association of Indonesian Nickel Miners (APNI), the Jakarta Futures Exchange, and China Coal Resource, Joseph G. Miller Esq., a strategic and defense metals expert from Intra-Pax LLC, discussed the topic of "Trade, Tariffs, Taxes, and Restrictions - Strategic Metals and the New Reality."
Competition for strategic metals
Trade restrictions and tariff measures have been evolving for several years, with more metals and products being included (in the taxation scope) since then.
He introduced content such as restrictions on rare earths and chip metals.
Dual-use metal restrictions
Dual-use attributes: Suitable for both commercial/civilian and military/defense applications
Most metals are used in both types of products - some metals have more specific uses in the defense sector, such as antimony, tellurium, rare earths, tungsten, bismuth, indium, and molybdenum.
(？).
Antimony:Export restrictions were implemented in September 2024. It is a typical "dual-use" metal: 40% is used for glass clarification in solar panels, antimony trioxide - as a flame retardant, and in hardening lead in bullets.
Other metals subject to follow-up restrictions in 2025
•Tungsten
•Indium, tellurium, bismuth, molybdenum
The US has taken measures such as Trump signing an executive order on critical metals - invoking "wartime powers" in March, the Trump administration opening up seabed mining in April, and the SB 429 Strategic Metals Act.
Europe has introduced the European Critical Raw Materials Act, focusing on green and technology minerals, and paying attention to resource sourcing and environmental issues.
Future trends
Sino-US and US-EU trade negotiations are ongoing, with a suspension of US-EU tariffs; companies are securing resources; the EU and the US are considering internal production and refining; export restrictions remain in place; attention should be paid to the origin, refining location, and storage warehouses of ores.
Is secondary production (recycling) likely to increase?
》Click to view the special report on the 2025 Indonesia Mining Conference & Critical Metals Conference
