America's New Energy Dependency: China's Metals

US News ^ | July 1, 2009 | By Kent Garber

[Flavius]

In 2007, a standoff unfolded between China and several American companies, including W.R. Grace, a major supplier of oil refining products. China was threatening to withhold supplies that keep refiners in business.

[Flavius]

Good thing we have nukes, if we had to build up armor we'd be screwed.

[fso301]

Oh well. At some point, sombody should recognize a recurring pattern of controlling behavior with China and project that pattern forward to her military buildup.

[PGR88]

This will happen in many other industries too. Americans have lost the sense that industry and production matter.

[raybbr]

Oh, come on! Aren't we told by the economic gurus here on FR that China's only hold over us is fiat currency and debt we can ignore? We get their "stuff" and all they get is paper?

I can't say it and not have the post pulled.

[Psycho_Bunny]

Thank God the US doesn’t mine this stuff anymore!

[Gorzaloon]

And for certain technologies, researchers say there are potential alternatives to rare earths. The leading technology in electric batteries, nickel metal hydride, requires them, but a possible alternative, lithium ion, does not.

In any case batteries are useless without motors to turn. We could kiss efficiency goodbye, and go back to wound-field motors, and not use Co/Sm or Nd/Fe/B magnets in them, I guess.

[Nervous Tick]

>> Thank God the US doesn’t mine this stuff anymore!

Yeah, it might make someone sick, or (God forbid!) dig up a golden-cheeked spotted spider burrow or something.

[dangerdoc]

You need to include the /sarc, or people will conclude that you are uneducated.

[Sundog]

Al Gore would have fits if the U.S. mined that stuff anymore.

Just think of how terrible long strand asbestos is in the ground.

[stefanbatory]

unless it was discovered on his land in TN...

[q_an_a]

This is an excellent reason for America to embrace the recycle movement and keep our product in America and away from the beast that needs it in China.

[UCFRoadWarrior]

Pretty much, anyone supporting any type of free trade with Communist China is pretty much loony.

You sleep with Mao’s children....you go Commie....

[Oatka]

Global demand for rare-earth metals, meanwhile, is expected to grow at least 10 percent annually. If no new mines open, the scenarios are daunting. At best, if China continues exporting, global prices seem sure to rise. At worst, the West could be shut off altogether, left scrambling to find new sources of these metals for turbines, batteries, and other parts.

I'm not a blind believer/Pollyana that science will solve everything, but, during WWII rubber was scarce because the Japs captured most of the natural-rubber producing countries. We came up with an alternative. The Nazis were running out of everything near the end of that war and came up with sometimes passable ersatz replacements. If/when we get our tail in a crack of the rare-earth scarcity, I suspect the human intellect will come up with a replacement as well.

[old curmudgeon]

I am mystified.

Why do you say “Thank God, we don’t mine this stuff anymore”?

Did you read the article to the end?

Protect your privacy. Replace Google with IXQUICK at www.ixquick.com.

If we do not wish to lose our freedom, we must learn to tolerate our
neighbor’s right to freedom even though he might express that freedom
in a manner we consider to be eccentric.

[Psycho_Bunny]

I was being sarcastic. Like so many other situations, the US has shot itself in the foot, here.

[Sundog]

You're right; Al Gore did get rich with Oil Stocks. But that's not all!

Al Gore and the Zinc Mine

Excerpt:
Humanity might be "sitting on a ticking time bomb," but Gore's home in Carthage is sitting on a zinc mine. Gore receives $20,000 a year in royalties from Pasminco Zinc, which operates a zinc concession on his property. Tennessee has cited the company for adding large quantities of barium, iron and zinc to the nearby Caney Fork River.