Another place where our “captains of industry” and our government have screwed the pooch! We have many of these materials, but we have not exploited them because of “environmental concerns” in many cases. I have read recently though that China would do this at it’s peril, because if they took that path, we would have no choice but to collapse their economy and we have the means to do so.
1. Rare earth metals are not that rare.
2. They are found in abundance all around the world
3. They are environmentally dirty to mine and refine
4. All China is going to do with the “nuclear option” is to slightly raise the price of rare earth metals and lose their entire market
US and EPA environmental restrictions drove a lot of this, there are at least some mines here in the US, Montana, California.
I worked for a mineral exploration company in 1979 and 1980. One of the geologist told me there are a lot of rare earth deposits in the US and Canada but not exploited because of the environmental litigation drives up the cost of extraction. His job was to file claims to secure their explorations.
Correct. I was going to say that. It's not how much they're producing, but how much we have in the ground and how fast we can begin pulling it out. China doesn't want to go this route, else they'll be left with tons above ground to sell and nobody to sell it to.
You can’t eat magnets.
Only if U.S. and other sources of rare earth metals are permitted to remain off limits.
Chinese behavior translated:
“Do NOT depend on us for ANYTHING or you will regret it.”
Duly noted.
And the market will adjust so THANK YOU CHINA.
Now you know the real reason we are keeping our fingers in Afghanistan.
Panama Nv. Rare earths right at the edge of town... Maybe not so rare...
Can Hillary sale more nuclear material for the US this time?
Are we crazy? I read like a decade ago we had alternative sources to China. Truly the leadership of this country are idiots.
I looked around and this is what I found!
Rare earth mine In Development in Nebraska. The CEO was previously the CEO of Molycorp, which ran Mountain Pass. The Chinese lowered REE prices to the point where Molycorp could not complete, it went under, the chinese bought Mountain Pass and are sending the raw materials back to China to refine.
In this instance the mine will produce Niobium, Scandium, and Titanium, none of which the Chinese currently produce. They can’t go all Standard Oil and drive their competitors out of business and then buy the mine. At the same time they expect to find other REES besides their primary target.
They are 8 years into the project, have the plans, have the permits, are finalizing financing. NIOBF.
If they can be recycled, then we don’t need to mine them or depend upon China for them.
For example, American Manganese has a patented process for reclaiming nearly 100% of cobalt, nickel, and lithium from batteries. (With electric cars increasing exponentially, raw materials for batteries will be in short supply.) This is especially critical regarding cobalt, since the Congo supplies 95% of the world’s supply. In the past three years, American Manganese has gone from nothing to now being almost finished with a pilot plant. If the same can be done with rare earth metals, then China has no “Nuclear Option”. It’s that simple.
Global trove of rare earth metals found in Japan’s deep-sea mud
By Roni DenglerApr. 13, 2018 , 5:30 PM
A “semi-infinite” supply of rare earth metals used in batteries, electric vehicles, and other green energy technologies has been found in deep-sea mud about 1850 kilometers southeast of Tokyo, The Wall Street Journal reports. Japanese researchers estimate the roughly 2499-square-kilometer region of seabed holds more than 16 million tons of rare earth oxides, including 780 years’ worth of the global supply of yttrium, 620 years’ worth of europium, 420 years’ worth of terbium, and 730 years’ worth of dysprosium, they write this week in Scientific Reports. The find could challenge China’s dominance on the rare earths’ world market, but extracting such metals from seabed sludge is expensive and difficult; scientists say it could take up to 5 years to figure out the best method.
I call deep state hoaxing B.S. against Trump.
We have been in Afghanistan for years.
1 Trillion dollars worth of rare earth minerals in Afghanistan.
https://www.livescience.com/47682-rare-earth-minerals-found-under-afghanistan.html
Just as Trump wondered why Bush didn’t get the oil in Iraq; why didn’t Bush get these minerals in Afghanistan?
Because the Deep State doesn’t want Trump to get at their poppy fields in Afghanistan?
Here, Forbes downplays the worth of rare earth minerals in Afghanistan. I call DEEP STATE B.S.
(Is EVERYTHING A HOAX? Seems like it!)
We nee a ‘security reserve’ of these elements. In a time of war our defense industry would be damaged by a lack of these elements...
There is absolutely no issue with finding more reserves of these metals.
We just need to encourage or allow more mining exploration. More “rare earth” minerals are out there, everywhere.
As the world’s largest producer, the Middle Kingdom has a vice-like grip on rare earths supply.