Posted on 09/29/2010 7:32:57 AM PDT by blam
America Will Lose A Trade War With China Because It Desperately Needs Rare Earth Metals
Vincent Fernando, CFA
Sep. 29, 2010, 9:46 AM
Image: www.industrialmineralscorp.com.au
If there's one thing the latest political spat between Chinese and Japan has exposed, it's China's massive control of the global rare earths market.
At the Money Game we've previously discussed China's near-monopoly over the rare earths used in all kinds of modern technology, including many types of U.S. military hardware.
As tensions flared over Japan's detention of a Chinese ship captain, and the China's detention of Japanese soon after, Japanese companies reported that rare earth shipments from China were being delayed or blocked. The central Chinese government has denied the reports, but it's pretty clear by now that some sort of retaliatory action happened even if it wasn't a policy decision given substantial concern from Japan. Local Chinese players on the ground might have decided to take it upon themselves to punish Japan with delayed rare earth exports, even if the central government didn't want them to do it.
It's huge a wake up call for Japan and other nations around the world, including the U.S., because many parts of the modern technology economy are dependent on rare earths.
The problem is that while rare earths production can be developed in many other parts of the world, (The U.S. actually has an abundant amount of rare earths, it's just not mined currently) in the short-term almost nothing can be done to remove China's choke hold over this niche of the technology supply chain. It takes time to get new mines up and running.
Thus in the case of Japan, this harsh reality means they simply have to capitulate and keep China happy, because the economic costs
[snip]
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
Good point.
That would explain the alpha activity in my cerium telescope mirror abrasive!
Thorium can be used as fuel...
YUP! As long as there’s not much of that stuff you can keep your fingernails, and your teeth won’t fall out real soon.
You know, i took a uranium tour that included a visit to a museum in NM. They said that raw crushed ore is actually more radioactive that yellow cake for the same reason,,, residual isotopes of radium in the ore that gets refined out.
Mining actually is an interesting topic. (there once was a time,,,,my life used to be so exciting. Now i discuss mine tailings)
thanks for the ping
In The Show-Me State, we can show you how to fix this problem:
http://stlouis.bizjournals.com/stlouis/stories/2010/09/27/story2.html?b=1285560000%5E3988221
“That would explain the alpha activity in my cerium telescope mirror abrasive!
Thorium can be used as fuel...”
You just lost me,, i don’t know if that was a movie line, humor, or real.
China was beating everybody's price by not properly disposing of the tailings ~ which is something that absolutely has to be done eventually.
"Eventually" is here, and there's a surplus on the international markets.
Frankly, every part of the planet's surface has vast amounts of "rare earths", and if times ever get tough we can dig down into the crust and find plenty more.
A couple of hour's research on the topic is quite frightening. It seems that the only reason there is a demand for rare earths is the American company with the first large and usable ore body decided to make this otherwise worthless stuff WORTHWHILE, so they hired scientists to find uses for it. Now it's in everything ~ small amounts make other metals harder, faster, longer, lower, harder, hotter, colder, shinier, more conductive, less conductive, or whatever else you want. Basically their presence in small amounts FINE TUNES more common metals to better fit modern industrial practice and products.
Bladder cancer can frequently be caused by high incidence of radium in ground water.
Anyway, these people were dying of that cancer before the US Army started testing depleted uranium weaponry in that area (which is a different issue ~ the tendency of military groups to set up testing areas for radioactive substances in areas with an already high background radiation level ~ we do it, the Chinese do it, the Russians do it, the French do it ~ just strange).
Anyway, you get over there East of I65 in Southern Indiana and you find that the soils are thin and of volcanic origin (of tens of millions of years ago) except where there are good bottom lands.
You dig through the soils pretty quick and you find oil shales overlying limestone beds. These particular oil shales could be used to provide oil OR, (sound of trumpets, ta ta ta taaaa ta ta) URANIUM ORE!
People who live in the area on top of the oil shale deposits get more than their fair share of radioactivity Fur Shur.
This is the area they used to dig up the black shale to use as school blackboards. Then they discovered they were radioactive! 'splains why children nationwide used to glow green in the dark or something.
Well, I figured it "had" to be a Democrat. Just not sure which one.
The world’s largest known deposits, however, are to be found in an obscure and desolate outcrop of southern Greenland, says Nick Sudbury in the Zurich Club letter. Studies of the site show that the Ilimaussaq reserves would meet at least 25% of global rare earth demand for the next 50 years, says Leo Lewis in The Times. Extraction hasn’t yet begun because Greenland only gained full sovereignty over its natural resources on 1 January this year.
**This stuff is found everywhere. The only inhibiting factors are “residual radioactivity” in the mine sites AND...***
The EPA!
R.E. materials may be used to build weapons systems, which the taxpayer will pay for, but the weapons will not be used to defend us. Arabs, T-ban, and latinos will be allowed to attack at will, as the current situation shows. Our gov’t will NOT serve us.
China is all over in Africa with mines.
The U.S. is too shy about being labeled “imperial” and is getting left behind.
Real humor. I do have cerium oxide abrasive, and it does have some gamma but mostly alpha activity, due to trace thoria. I don’t polish mirrors in the kitchen when using cerium oxide.
Think about what's going on here ~ doesn't mean EPA is right, but what about the guys who think it's safe to eat this stuff without checking.
See if someone can dig up one of the more troublesome lawsuits and see what's been claimed. Interesting page at: >http://www.epa.gov/radiation/tenorm/sources.html#summary-table
The picocurrie counts for rare earth mining are HIGHER than for plain old everyday dangerous as all get out uranium mining.
Yup, put something between me and that stuff.
This stuff is found everywhere. The only inhibiting factors are “residual radioactivity” in the mine sites AND....
The EPA! (Can’t let Americans get rich now, can we?)
So, it I follow this and extrapolate a bit, I would conclude that thorium reactors would reduce our dependance on fossil fuel energy and reactor by-products could be reprocessed to enrich the thorium for refueling reactors and extract RE elements at the same time.
The NappyOne
Of course. Which means the thorium reactor issue is wrapped up in the rare earths issue, and both are opposed by the same instrumentalities for the same reason ~ to wit: FEAR OF THE UNKNOWN AND THE SCARY
Back in the 1950s and '60s GlassWax (that stuff still around?) advertised that the product contained "rare earths."
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