$AREC

With President Trump and Xi Jinping expected to meet in Beijing between March 31 and April 2, 2026, the situation for AREC is a little different from $USAR. The impact of a possible U.S.-China agreement on AREC is more complex because of the company's dual-sided business model, which gives it a natural internal hedge.
It would be incomplete to view AREC only as a Rare Earth Elements (REE) miner. What really makes the company interesting is the purification technology it is developing through its subsidiary ReElement Technologies, along with its traditional coal business focused on metallurgical carbon.
Here are the likely effects of a possible China agreement specifically for AREC:
Instead of doing traditional and costly hard rock mining, AREC is running a massive picks and shovels operation. They use chromatography technology to extract REEs from coal waste, fly ash, and recycled batteries.
Even if China easing quotas pushes global REE prices lower, AREC's raw material cost is almost zero because it is already processing waste. This technology-based approach could allow it to protect its margins better than traditional miners even in a lower-price scenario.
The company is not only mining materials. It also has the potential to sell or license its purification technology. As the U.S. government builds a domestic supply chain, it is not only funding raw material production but also the environmentally friendly infrastructure needed to process those materials.
Just like with USAR, a headline saying China is removing export restrictions would immediately trigger algorithms and retail investors. Markets usually tend to sell the sector first before looking at the fine details. Because of that, it would not be surprising to see a sharp pullback in AREC shares in the first days after such a headline.
But one of the main things that should not be forgotten is that one of the company's core business lines is metallurgical carbon supply, which is critical for steel production. If the Trump-Xi meeting produces a broader agreement that reduces trade tensions, lowers tariffs, and eases global trade, that could stimulate global infrastructure projects and industrial growth.
A stronger global growth outlook would directly support steel demand and, in turn, strengthen AREC's metallurgical carbon business. That could help offset any possible price weakness on the REE side in the company's financials.
To sum it up, AREC may be more defensive than traditional miners against this kind of news flow, but it may still struggle to avoid short term sector-wide selling. However, over the long term, with its exposure to both the steel industry and REE production from waste, it could become one of the most interesting players in the new technology and infrastructure cycle.