G7 finance ministers to meet in Washington to discuss rare earths

Finance ministers from the Group of Seven nations will meet in Washington on January 12 to discuss rare earths supplies, three sources familiar with the matter said on Tuesday.

One of the sources added that price floors for rare earths would be a point of discussion, among other critical mineral topics.

G7 countries, except Japan, are heavily or exclusively reliant on China for a range of materials from rare earth magnets to battery metals. In June last year, the G7 agreed on an action plan to secure their supply chains and boost their economies.

Officials began discussing price floors last year to make investments in critical minerals outside China economically viable. The United States was the first to set a minimum price in a contract for domestic rare earths supplies last year.

A spokesperson for the US Treasury did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

(By Makiko Yamazaki, Julia Payne, Andrea Shalal and Trevor Hunnicutt; Editing by Alex Richardson and Alison Williams)