Abstract: Rare metals serve as an indispensable material foundation for supporting national strategic emerging industries and defense security systems. This study takes the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Re⁃ gion as its research object，focusing on nine strategic rare metals including niobium（Nb），tantalum （Ta），lithium（Li），beryllium（Be），zirconium（Zr），hafnium（Hf），strontium（Sr），rubidium（Rb）， and cesium（Cs). A comprehensive industrial chain analysis framework is systematically constructed，cov⁃ ering“mineral exploration → mining and beneficiation → smelting and separation → material prepara⁃ tion → end-use applications → recycling”，integrating theories of global value chains，industrial clus⁃ters，and innovation ecosystems. The research reveals that Guangxi's rare metal industrial chain faces a profound structural imbalance characterized by“a fragile upstream foundation，a broken midstream link， and a singular downstream application.”Specifically，the upstream sector suffers from low exploration lev⁃ els despite favorable resource endowments，resulting in an unclear resource inventory；the midstream sec⁃ tor is nearly vacant in terms of high value-added smelting and material preparation；and the downstream sector is severely underdeveloped except for the lithium battery industry，which remains decoupled from lo⁃ cal resources. The core constraints lie in the unresolved technological bottlenecks for the efficient and clean comprehensive utilization of complex associated resources—particularly bauxite smelting by-prod⁃ ucts（red mud）—as well as insufficient support from the regional innovation ecosystem and industrial clus⁃ ters. Through horizontal comparison with major domestic rare metal industrial agglomerations in Inner Mon⁃ golia，Sichuan，and Xinjiang，Guangxi's unique advantages in resource associated characteristics and ASEAN-facing geographical location are identified. Confronted with dual pressures from global supply chain restructuring and domestic industrial upgrading，this paper proposes a systematic breakthrough strat⁃ egy centered on“exploration first，technological breakthrough，cluster development，and open coopera⁃ tion”. Specific implementation pathways include implementing strategic mineral exploration projects to con⁃ solidate the resource foundation；targeting“multi-metal co-extraction and bulk utilization from red mud” as a key technological breakthrough to address comprehensive resource utilization challenges；leveraging the port advantages of the Beibu Gulf to establish high-end material deep-processing clusters and strength⁃ en the weak core links of the industrial chain；fostering a deeply integrated innovation consortium involv⁃ ing government，industry，academia，research，finance，application，and service sectors；and improving the strategic implementation guarantee system from the four dimensions of organizational coordination，poli⁃ cy support，resource guarantee，and open cooperation，accompanied by a comprehensive benefit analysis. This study aims to provide theoretical basis and practical reference for Guangxi to transform its latent re⁃ source advantages into industrial competitive advantages and facilitate its deeper integration into the nation⁃ al critical raw material security system.

Key words: rare metals, industrial chain, structural bottlenecks, systematic strategy, Guangxi