They’re shiny metals, can be hard to find and they’re essential to building high-tech equipment — from electric cars to fighter jets. “Rare earth metals” are dominated by one country: China. Once obscure, rare earth metals shot to prominence when China cut exports to the outside world — a strategy to hurt the US amid the ongoing trade war. What many people overlook is that many so-called “Chinese” rare earths aren’t from China at all. The World’s Patrick Winn reports.