Texas’ land commissioner says her office has caught a Chinese company attempting to use the “facade" of being an Australian company to secure a big mineral land lease, as the state escalates its efforts to break China’s monopoly on rare earth minerals.

“We're about to bust their monopoly, and just like they do everywhere, they're trying to hurt the companies that are doing the best things for America,” Texas Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham told the Just the News, No Noise show Wednesday.

The Texas General Land Office, which Buckingham leads, manages 13 million acres of state-owned mineral rights and leases them to companies for oil, gas, and rare earth extraction.

Buckingham pointed out in June of last year Texas banned foreign nationals from "hostile" nations from owning property in the state. Prior to that legislation, Buckingham noted, she spearheaded the purchase of 354,000 acres of land “because the Chinese were about to buy it, and we didn't want them acquiring one more piece of Texas land.”

This comes amid escalating global tensions over strategic resources. In June, Beijing retaliated against U.S. tech sanctions by placing 10 American industrial suppliers on its export control list, which included rare earth miners such as MP Materials, which operates a major manufacturing facility in Texas, as well as drone manufacturers.

“Right now, China controls 99% of that market, but Texas does have what we believe to be the largest and richest deposit of rare earth minerals outside of China's control,” Buckingham said.

According to data from the International Energy Agency’s 2026 report, China accounts for 60% of the global mined production of magnet rare earths and 91% of the global refined output.

However, Buckingham remains optimistic, saying stakeholders in Texas are “hopeful”  the state is only two years away from processing its own rare earth magnets in a complete "mine-to-magnet" supply chain.

“China is definitely playing chess,” Buckingham warned, and said that her agency worked alongside the Texas secretary of state to bust a Chinese firm covertly operating under the 'facade' of being an Australian company. “We're just being sure that China doesn't gain any monopoly, and it's all Texas grown,” Buckingham said. 

Buckingham contrasted how quickly rare earth projects could operate under the Trump administration compared to the former Biden administration, which she said was like wading up a continual stream of wet concrete.” 

She also said that as a state, Texas moved “at the pace of private industry” because it paired “good government” with reasonable regulations.

Buckingham further touted how Texas’ booming economy was drawing about 2,000 new residents a day. 

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Texas added 391,243 residents in 2025, an average of 1,072  a day. Buckingham said this wave of new residents was a testament to the "Texas Miracle," but warned residents looking to shift the state's politics and "California our Texas." 

“They're welcome to stay as long as they behave,” she said jokingly. “I think that's the secret to the Texas miracle [is] you have good government, and you have reasonable regulations, and then you move on and get the job done.”

"We're excited, drill baby drill, let's get this energy independence, manufacturing independence, we're calling it: elemental independence with our rare earth minerals, and it's time to just go and be able to rely and stand on our own two feet,” Buckingham said.