On the east coast of peninsular Malaysia, nestled between a turtle sanctuary and palm-fringed tourist beaches, sits one of the most consequential industrial complexes for the future of global trade. The Lynas Advanced Material Plant outside the port city of Kuantan is the world’s largest rare earth refinery, stretching for over 220 football fields. A workforce of 850 engineers and chemists perform 1,300 separate steps against the incessant din of whirring machinery to isolate 15 separate rare