The Globe and Mail reports in its Wednesday edition that a prominent U.S. cybersecurity firm is alleging that Chinese government-funded campaigns are spreading disinformation about Canadian rare earths miner Appia Rare Earths & Uranium in an attempt to cement China's dominance in the sector and crush Canadian ambitions. The Globe's Niall McGee writes that Virginia-based Mandiant Inc. said in a report that Appia and two other rare earth companies, Lynas Rare Earths Ltd. and USA Rare Earth LLC, were targeted by an on-line network called Dragonbridge, a front for the People's Republic of China (PRC). Rare earths mineral mining is of strategic significance to the PRC, an industry it dominates globally. Canada only has one small rare earths mine in operation. In June, following encouraging drilling results at Appia's Saskatchewan rare earths project, several Twitter accounts that Mandiant said came from Dragonbridge blasted out negative commentaries attempting to stir up public contempt. "The idea of extracting rare earth elements from abandoned mines is terrifying," Gonzalez Bonnie wrote on Twitter. "Our lakes will be destroyed." The posts on Facebook and Twitter were designed to appear as if they were posted by locals.