The Pentagon awarded an Australia-based company tens of millions of dollars to ramp up its rare earth element operations in Texas as the United States and its allies push back against Chinese global dominance of the crucial industrial sector.

The Defense Department announced this week that Lyans Rare Earths Corporation, the largest rare earth element mining and processing company not located in China, would be receiving just over $30 million to establish light rare earth elements separation capacity at a facility in Hondo, Texas, — the same location as its proposed heavy rare earth elements facility that also received millions in U.S. government funding last year.