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Caught between Trump and its biggest market, America’s sole rare earths mine is an unusual victim
South China Morning Post ^ | Updated: 9:03am, 27 May, 2019 | Eric Ng

Posted on 05/27/2019 4:47:29 PM PDT by Zhang Fei

MP Materials, which runs the sole operating rare earths mine in the United States, is an unusual victim in the year-long tit-for-tat trade war between the two largest economies on the planet, as the conflict looks set to open up a new battlefront over technology.

The operator of the Mountain Pass mine in California said it will kick-start its own processing operation by the end of 2020, after China last week more than doubled an import duty on concentrates to 25 per cent effective June 1. MP exports pellets – ground-up ores that contain oxides of rare earth elements – to China for processing into neodymium, cerium and other elements used in magnets, electric vehicles, smartphones and a myriad of industrial applications and electronic products.

“A 25 per cent tariff is likely to make domestic sources of rare earth ores in China more competitive, although importing ore still circumvents the mining quota and associated environmental legislation,” said David Merriman, a London-based analyst at Roskill Information Services.

MP’s strategy underscores the lopsidedness in one aspect of the complicated US-China commercial relationship, where America had run a trade deficit with China since at least 1985 when US census data began. Mountain Pass lost its two-decade dominance of the world’s rare earths supply in the mid-1980s when China began to exploit, extract and process the nation’s vast reserves, ending up with a stranglehold of about 90 per cent of global supply today.

US President Donald Trump, who ordered his administration to more than double US duties on US$200 billion worth of Chinese products to 25 per cent, had wanted to slap a 10 per cent tariff on Chinese rare earths in July, but dropped it from a long list last September.

(Excerpt) Read more at scmp.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Extended News; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: 201807; 201809; california; cerium; china; concerntroll; dnctalkingpoint; dnctalkingpoints; duties; ericng; maga; magnets; mediawingofthednc; mining; mountainpass; mpmaterials; neodymium; orc; ore; partisanmediashills; presstitutes; rareearth; rareearthmaterials; rareearthminerals; rareearths; smearmachine; tariffs; trump
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Rare earth minerals aren't actually rare. The problem is that processing the ores into the minerals used in industry creates significant pollution, such that the ores from this US mine are sent to China to process. If China banned rare earths exports to the US, it's possible that the President would invoke a national security exception to force California to allow processing in-state.
1 posted on 05/27/2019 4:47:29 PM PDT by Zhang Fei
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To: Zhang Fei

Good news for the other REE mine in the US that isn’t in CA:

https://www.mining-technology.com/projects/elk-creek-niobium-project-nebraska/


2 posted on 05/27/2019 5:06:40 PM PDT by bigbob (Trust Trump. Trust the Plan.)
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To: Zhang Fei

This mine previously operated as Molycorp, went bankrupt in 2015. Lots of enviro-reg and market problems. A lot of circumstances are going to have to change before it becomes viable again.


3 posted on 05/27/2019 5:10:55 PM PDT by umgud
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To: Zhang Fei

I thought the US was importing a lot of rare earth materials from China.

We have production here, so we don’t need to import them. This is supposed to be good.


4 posted on 05/27/2019 5:13:30 PM PDT by Innovative
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To: Zhang Fei

“The problem is that processing the ores into the minerals used in industry creates significant pollution, such that the ores from this US mine are sent to China to process. “

Why not send them to another country or another state in the US to process?


5 posted on 05/27/2019 5:14:01 PM PDT by ifinnegan (Democrats kill babies and harvest their organs to sell)
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To: umgud

Where do we get lead from since Obama closed the lead smelters?


6 posted on 05/27/2019 5:14:49 PM PDT by Bonemaker (invictus maneo)
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To: bigbob

“MP Materials, which runs the sole operating rare earths mine in the United States,..”

You mean Obama/Hillary didn’t sell it to Russia or China for campaign contributions?


7 posted on 05/27/2019 5:17:31 PM PDT by Bonemaker (invictus maneo)
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To: Zhang Fei

I’m kind of mixed on this...since most of these rare earths go into electric cars, something that I can live without.


8 posted on 05/27/2019 5:22:15 PM PDT by BobL (I eat at McDonald's and shop at Walmart - I just don't tell anyone.)
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To: umgud

I say we plan a military campaign on California. Besiege and take Sacramento, Los Angeles and San Francisco, and begin mining operations those locations.

Lock up the legislature and governor, arrest the democratic Congressional Representatives and Senators, put Hollywood and tv types in concentration camps, and get on with the mining!


9 posted on 05/27/2019 5:23:15 PM PDT by Alas Babylon! (The media is after us. Trump's just in the way.)
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To: ifinnegan

[Why not send them to another country or another state in the US to process?]


The way dry bulk shipping, enviro-regulations (even outside of CA) and Chinese-US labor cost differentials work, it is probably cheaper to send it to China, have it processed there and sent back here than to ship and process it in-country. From a conversation with an acquaintance in the biz, ten years ago, it literally cost a ten cents a lb to send a refrigerated container to China and back. That is cheaper than trucking it to another state. Dry bulk is different, but I suspect the economics are similar.


10 posted on 05/27/2019 5:28:51 PM PDT by Zhang Fei (My dad had a Delta 88. That was a car. It was like driving your living room.)
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To: ifinnegan

The best thing the USA could do for the earth’s environment would be to relax some of the EPA rules to make mining, drilling, production, etc. more widespread in the US.

No idea on the actual levels, but lets say the US only allows 2 part/million of nasty, and China probably has no limits - so maybe 500 ppm of nasty into the air. So we send our stuff to China.

Make our limit something that isn’t too costly to do, but still way better than China (say 20 ppm?) and we can keep those industries and jobs here. AND keep from polluting our environment so much.

I don’t recall the particulars - but the coal-fired electrical plants were outfitted with filters back in the 70’s or 80’s to reduce pollution. And a necessary step IMHO. But then they (obama?) come along and requires this huge other system of treatment, and that make coal plants unfeasible. (Which was the plan).

Most USA waste-water treatment plants release cleaner water than what is already in the river!


11 posted on 05/27/2019 5:34:04 PM PDT by 21twelve (!)
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To: Zhang Fei

If we were to relax some EPA restrictions in the name of National Security AND

Free up a lot of Federal Lands for prospecting AND

Encourage N Sask, Man & Alb Canada to to the same....

We would likely be awash in rare-earth minerals


12 posted on 05/27/2019 5:34:41 PM PDT by Oscar in Batangas (Jan. 20, 2017, 12:00 PM: The End of an ERROR)
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To: Zhang Fei

The Anwar oil fields that DJT just opened up in Alaska are loaded with rare earth minerals! Coincidence? Don’t think so!


13 posted on 05/27/2019 5:42:47 PM PDT by hoosiermama (When you open your heart to patriotism, there is no room for prejudice.DJT)
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To: Alas Babylon!

Damn, you’re sounding like I feel.


14 posted on 05/27/2019 5:45:51 PM PDT by umgud
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To: All

The US does mine some of the “light” REs but as for the important “Heavy” REs that is a bit of a challenge.

Enviro rules in the 70’s and 80’s killed the RE mining industry. Many companies don’t want to deal with the regulatory hassle.

If you simply rectified the “Thorium” issue, the US can jump start it’s RE industry. Heck, the tillings lakes have a lot of REs which can be gathered rather easily (more or less). Enough to satisfy our needs for many, many years.

Background Video from someone in the trenches:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyqYP6f66Mw

TEAC reps have been working to insert “thorium reforms” into the Congressional docket but have been rebuffed by Military pencil pushers and enviro nuts.

Thing weren’t moving until Trump stepped in...might get some movement on this matter.


15 posted on 05/27/2019 5:47:27 PM PDT by ak267
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To: Zhang Fei

WOW ! Mountain Pass in the news ! I lived there as a child in the ‘60s and attended the 2 room school house. And met Elvis Presley at our little post office/grocery store. He was riding a motorcycle with another rider on their way to Las Vegas. He stopped at the little store for soda and snack. My Mom talked with him while I just gwacked. He was very nice. The most favorite place I ever lived.


16 posted on 05/27/2019 5:54:29 PM PDT by ghostkatz (catslivesmatter....all 9 of them)
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To: Zhang Fei

Or other states might seize the opportunity. Perhaps we can even find a way to process it and reduce the pollution effect in the process. If anybody can we can.


17 posted on 05/27/2019 6:12:29 PM PDT by Robert DeLong
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To: Zhang Fei

So the issue is not environmental but economic.


18 posted on 05/27/2019 6:17:00 PM PDT by ifinnegan (Democrats kill babies and harvest their organs to sell)
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To: Alas Babylon!
"Lock up the legislature and governor, arrest the democratic Congressional Representatives and Senators, put Hollywood and tv types in concentration camps, and get on with the mining!"

Hmmm...Why pussy-foot around... Skip the camps and just send them all to Somalia, Yemen, and South Africa... Alternatively, turn them over to the Philippines and let Duterte take care of them with his helicopter...

19 posted on 05/27/2019 6:21:21 PM PDT by SuperLuminal (Where is Sam Adams now that we desperately need him)
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To: Zhang Fei

Put all the bums “homeless” to work in or on the mines. Win win problem solved.


20 posted on 05/27/2019 7:46:38 PM PDT by HighSierra5
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