Vanadium, Other Tech Minerals More Costly as China Cracks Down

The vanadium that keeps aircraft and high-speed tools durable could get more expensive as China pushes new pollution policies and cracks down on illegal mining in nature reserves.

China is targeting operations in the mineral rich Qinghai, Shanxi, and Liaoning provinces and the Xinjiang-Uighur autonomous region, home to deposits of lithium, antimony, tungsten, indium, and other materials vital to everything from smartphones and laptops to renewable energy and electric vehicles.

Combined with policies walling off sensitive areas from development and enforcing an updated water pollution law, that’s making the mining of rare minerals more difficult.

Environmental authorities in ...