According to Lynas Rare Earths Ltd., an Australian rare-earths mining company, Chinese Communist Party-linked social media companies are posting daily attacks against them.
Experts state the campaign is designed to disrupt a US and Australian collaboration on mineral supply chains that is critical to national security. The campaign is designed to sow public doubt about Lynas’ environmental record in Malaysia, in the hopes that will trigger public opposition in the US against a new Texas plant it is building with the aid of US government funding.
Lynas Chief Executive Officer Amanda Lacaze said in an interview on Friday, “We see bot posts on various social media every day, and we report them every day, and it’s quite frustrating. It’s very easy to see the bot posts and the messages are exactly the same.”
Cybersecurity firms including Mandiant and Graphika have long warned that the CCP’s propaganda wing uses social media in attempts to leverage public opinion in target nations for or against issues it deems in its interest, from the origin of the coronavirus, to issues in Presidential elections.
Mandiant first identified the bot campaign against Lynas, naming it, “Dragonbridge,” and said its point of origin was a “pro-People’s Republic of China (PRC) network.” They noted the campaign was also targeting another company in Canada, Appia Rare Earths & Uranium Corp.
Albert Zhang, a researcher at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute noted that it was a, “Chinese Communist Party information operation.” Both Mandiant and Zhang noted the attacks were a clear attempt by China to derail the development of the US critical minerals industry.
China is currently the primary supplier of minerals vital to military equipment, high-tech manufacturing, and green energy. Among the most important are rare earth metals, which are vital for the manufacture of the high-powered magnets used in electric vehicles and wind-power turbines.
Regardless, Lacaze said the campaign has had little to no effect on the company’s operations.
With an operating processing plant in Malaysia, and two additional facilities under construction in the US and Australia, Lynas is the largest producer of rare-earths outside of China. Its full-year net income after tax was reported Friday as A$541 million ($377 million), over three times last year’s number.
The surge in profits was helped by skyrocketing demand for wind turbines, and electric vehicles, which Lacaze noted was sure to continue to grow.
Referring to the long-term demand outlook for rare earths, Lacaze noted, “I think the chart goes from the bottom left to the top right with very little deviation from that trajectory.”
