Australia has made a move by offering several times the salary in an attempt to poach China’s key rare earth technology talents.

I thought I had won a round, but as soon as production started, I found that the situation was completely stuck. China had already laid out three cards in advance, each of which was sealed off.

By poaching people, mining resources and technology, Australia has come up with a way to break through

Australian rare earth giant Lynas has long announced that its Malaysian plant has successfully extracted high-purity dysprosium oxide for the first time, with a purity of 99.9%. It also specifically mentioned in the press release: “This is inseparable from the contribution of Chinese experts.”

The news spread and the capital market reacted immediately.

Foreign media described the 25-kilogram sample as a “breakthrough in rare earth decoupling”, saying that Australia has finally broken through China’s control over rare earths.

Has 25 kilograms of pure dysprosium oxide stood up? It’s not that simple.

Linus’ move is betting that as long as the people can be poached, the technology can be replicated, the rare earth industry chain can be relocated, and as long as it can bypass China and build refining plants in Australia or overseas, the money from the United States, Japan and the European Union will follow.

So they initiated the expansion of the factory in Malaysia, redesigning the smelting workshop, with the goal of being able to independently complete the separation and purification of medium and heavy rare earths, no longer relying on China’s tailings export and processing services.

The Chinese side’s response was very quiet. There was no lockdown list and no visa revocation.

The public statement to the outside world is only one sentence: “We welcome normal scientific and technological exchanges and support open cooperation in the field of resources.”

But many people overlook the details – China’s silence doesn’t mean it hasn’t taken any action.

In the same week that Linus announced the achievement, the Jiangxi Ganzhou Rare Earth Research Institute issued an internal notice to the public, stating that all scientific researchers must go through multiple approvals when going abroad, and any cooperative research related to rare earth separation processes must be filed and recorded.

What does this indicate? China won’t stop you from going out, but it will strictly control core technologies in terms of procedures, rules and mechanisms.

Australia is poaching people, but it turns out that the technology and processes behind it are all encrypted.