Posted on 10/24/2010 11:11:36 AM PDT by neverdem
Earlier this year, China announced a 72 percent reduction in the export quotas for rare-earth metals for the second half of 2010, sending tremors across America's industrial complex. Rare earths are a group of 17 metals vital to the production of precision-guided munitions, cruise missiles, radar and other defense systems as well as consumer electronics and renewable-energy technologies such as wind turbines, solar panels and hybrid vehicles. Such metals are often compared to the yeast in bread - small in proportion but huge in contribution.
The rationale behind Beijing's decision to cut exports: China produces 97 percent of the world's rare earths, and its fast economic growth requires that more of its metals production remain at home for domestic use. But last month's unofficial embargo on shipment of rare-earth elements to Japan in response to the detention of a Chinese fishing-boat captain whose boat collided with a Japanese patrol boat shows that for China, rare-earth metals are not only iPod ingredients but also tools of economic warfare. As Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping noted in 1992: "The Middle East has oil, China has rare earths."
It is not the first time China has signaled its readiness to use its rare-earth monopoly in such a way. Last summer, when the Obama administration imposed import tariffs on Chinese tires, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology floated a proposal suggesting that the export of the rarest of the rare earths be terminated immediately.
China's domination over a global supply of raw materials key to America's military-industrial complex and its demonstrated readiness to use this domination as a weapon are undeniably a national-security vulnerability. Because of rare earths' unique role in maintaining America's technology work force, qualitative military edge and energy future, Washington should work to diversify America's technology metals supply chain and...
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
(1) The United States is in danger of losing its longstanding leadership in many areas of REE technology. Transfer of expertise in REE processing technology and REE applications from the United States and Europe to Asia has allowed China to develop a major REE industry, eclipsing all other countries in production of both ore and refined products. The Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology recently announced a new national basic research program. Among the first group of 15 high-priority projects to be funded was “Basic research in rare earth materials” (Science, Dec. 18, 1998, p. 2171).
(2) United States dependence on imports from China comes at a time when REE have become increasingly important in defense applications, including jet fighter engines and other aircraft components, missile guidance systems, electronic countermeasures, underwater mine detection, antimissile defense, range finding, and space-based satellite power and communication systems.
(3) Availability of Chinese REE to U.S. markets depends on continued stability in China’s internal politics and economy, and its relations to other countries.
just like Obama will keep us from drilling here
But, but;
We might hurt the snail darter, or the terrepin turtles, or maybe uncover a rat’s nest.
We can’t mine in the US!
Do the folks who keep reading these alarming news articles ever do some research into what it takes to mine this stuff and why there are "difficulties"?
I'm just guessing it's the Chicoms involved part that interests them, not the rare earth business at all.
For the uninitiated rare earths are mostly the residue left behind when radio active thorium breaks down.
There can be, and often is, radioactive residue in the vicinity of mineable rare earths.
You have to DO STUFF to make mining rare earths safe for the miners ~ and the managers too. No crispy critters for them ~ oh no sir ee ~ no crispy critters.
--can you name one example of where this is the case?
Do the people who point to "technical problems" ever do some research to see why they are overblown? Could it be that there are VERY well connected American "investors" in Chinese rare earth mines?
From the article:
"The truth appears to be just the opposite. The scattered railroad lands that could never be developed are to be consolidated into a single block of 226,000 acres so they can be developed.
JMB Realty stands to make a huge profit on this development. In the name of "rewilding" millions of acres of desert, grave financial and environmental damage will occur once the land is closed to the public.
Ninety-seven the U.S. rare earth mineral production comes from the California desert. These minerals are used in high technology and are essential to the production of lasers, high-power magnets, super conductivity and pollution free cars. The United States will now be forced to obtain these minerals from foreign mineral cartels.
Which mine are your referring to, any in the US?
“The first mine on stream is likely to be Mount Wells in Australia that is operated by Lynas Corporation and it should be on stream later in 2011, following that, Molycorp in the United States which was the only producing mine in the US for a lot of years before it was shut down somewhere around the year 2000, should be on stream likely in 2012. Great Western Minerals - my company - will have a small deposit coming on stream late 2012-early 2013 and Arafura operating Nolan’s Bore in Australia is likely to come on stream in 2013 as well. Those are the main projects that in all likelihood will be on in the next three or four years.”
http://www.mineweb.com/mineweb/view/mineweb/en/page96985?oid=112632&sn=2010+Detail&pid=102055
—can you name one example of where this is the case?
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
“The primary source of the world’s thorium is the rare-earth and thorium phosphate
mineral monazite”
Follow this link
http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/commodity/thorium/thorimcs07.pdf
Monazite in placers is/was produced in places for rare earths. Has thorium in it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monazite
Just do a google search for rare earth mining radioactivity and you'll find about half a million articles covering the problem.
THORIUM is also found with its products so sometimes there's "radioactivity", and though small, there are some real limits on mining it easily, handling it, and processing it.
You can't just take thorium out and dump it in a ditch somewhere!
Uh, thorium is not exactly a waste product because we have available to us processes that can use it as a source of radioactivity to produce energy.
Frankly, when I sit down for breakfast in the morning and cut that egg in two I don't want it glowing back at me eh! Best to keep the rare earth mining materials segregated from EVERYTHING ELSE ~ I'm picky that way, but I bet the miners are too. Of course, with them, it's more personal. They don't want their fingers glowing green in the dark!
————— WARNING..... SARCASM DEAD AHEAD —————
“U.S. should restart mining to end vulnerability”
Oh no..... That’s a terrible idea. I was told waaaaay back
in the 1990s that we don’t want these kinds of jobs.
They are not “value added” to our economy. Digging around in
the dirt IS NOT the kind of job that we should want our workforce to do.
I was told that we should instead let the Chinese do these “menial” jobs. Maybe we can hire a Chinese company to come over and actually dig the mine for us........ With Chinese
labor.
Then we won’t have to get our hands dirty........ because
Americans should not do jobs that are menial or dirty.
I believe there is a proposed reactor design that utilizes thorium. I’ll try to hunt that down for you.
In fact, I believe N-reactors can be used to produce rare-earth elements.
Well.... I can tell you this: Despite what China is saying, publicly, they HAVE indeed expanded the “reduction” in exports to.. a COMPLETE BAN on exports of RE to Japan and US.
My company has been trying to buy cerium for several weeks... we couldn’t find ANY, at ANY price. The one tiny lot we finally did locate (at a ridiculously inflated price) could not be shipped to the US. We have to route it through Rotterdam.
This is, if you ask me, pretty close to economic warfare.
But the Chinese have no experience filling out all the environmental permits needed to get a mine started in the US. Of course the government could send them to school on our dime and teach them first. Then in 10 or 20 years we could get a mine on line in the US.
Doesn't matter if there's radioactivity!
When there is radioactivity WE ALL have a special interest in it especially if we eat stuff DOWNHILL from the mines.
BTW, thorium is found worldwide. Earth has vast quantities of it. This is the stuff that decays and heats the interior ~ keeps that iron core liquid ~ and that generates the magnetic field that keeps harder radiation from space cooking all of us.
I love thorium, but in its place!
“Experts say Vietnam is a key channel for smuggling rare earths and other minerals out of China.
About 20,000 tonnes of rare earths were smuggled out of China in 2009, according to a note by Eurasia Group analyst Damien Ma, supplementing legal exports through that year’s quotas of about 50,000 tonnes.”
Got any friends in Vietnam?
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