Posted on 02/16/2021 8:42:20 AM PST by SeekAndFind
China has been quietly exploring the economic damage it could inflict to US and European companies - including defense contractors - if they were to impose export 'restrictions' on 17 rare-earth materials, according to a report in the Financial Times.
Notably, the US government relies on these rare earths for the manufacture of F-35 jets and other sophisticated weaponry, which use them for critical components such as electrical power systems and magnets.
"The government wants to know if the US may have trouble making F-35 fighter jets if China imposes an export ban," said one Chinese government adviser who spoke on condition of anonymity.
One rare earth metal for example, samarium cobalt, is used in precision guided missiles and fighter jets, and advanced communications systems.
FT added that "[t]he Ministry of Industry and Information Technology last month proposed draft controls on the production and export of 17 rare earth minerals in China, which controls about 80% of global supply."
Before being voted out of office, President Trump and his administration sought to take steps that might help the US limit China's resource dominance in this area, including signing an executive order declaring a "national emergency" in the US mining and minerals industry (much of which remains focused on digging coal out of the ground). China has been widely acknowledged as dominant in the rare-earth minerals market for decades.
But with Trump out, and a much more China-friendly administration back in power in Washington, it looks like Beijing is already considering playing hardball to get what it wants.
Industry executives said government officials had asked them how badly companies in the US and Europe, including defence contractors, would be affected if China restricted rare earth exports during a bilateral dispute.
...
Fighter jets such as the F-35, a Lockheed Martin aircraft, rely heavily on rare earths for critical components such as electrical power systems and magnets. A Congressional Research Service report said that each F-35 required 417kg of rare-earth materials.
As one state-affiliated security analyst explained to the FT, China has been mulling potential export controls for a while, and would seek to target minerals that are critical to the US defense industry first.
In a November report, Zhang Rui, an analyst at Antaike, a government-backed consultancy in Beijing, said that US weapons makers could be among the first companies targeted by any export restriction. China’s foreign ministry said last year it would sanction Lockheed Martin, Boeing and Raytheon for selling arms to Taiwan, the self-ruled island that Beijing claims as its sovereign territory. The proposed guidelines would require rare earth producers to follow export control laws that regulate shipments of materials that “help safeguard state security”. China’s State Council and Central Military Commission will have the final say on whether the list should include rare earths.
Despite their classification, rare earth metals aren't actually that rare.And fortunately for the US, the mining of rare-earth metals has been growing outside of China.
The decision to once again "consider" cutting the US off from critical stocks of rare earth minerals couldn't come at a more precarious time, as the worsening energy crisis in Texas, compounded by so-called "extreme weather" which has forced blackouts to more than 5MM utility customers in the state, may play into a new "commodity supercycle" currently being discussed inside the walls of America's investment banks - including by JPMorgan's Marko Kolanovic.
We now wait to see how the Biden Administration, and the markets, will respond to this latest threat from Beijing.
I can’t believe that we have none of these minerals.
A couple of years back there were stories how Japan was looking at doing massive REE mining from the ocean floor.
We can go to India and South Africa
Don’t look now, but the Chinese and Russians have been working for the past two decades to control world-wide production of rare earth elements in other countries.
They have largely succeeded.
We have em just our one processor could not stay profitable with China lowballing the prices. Trump’s EO was supposed to solve that.
Some background. The US was a dominant supplier of rare earth materials to the world, until the Clinton Administration had the EPA shut most of the mines.
China began buying up the world’s mines and took over as the dominant supplier. Incidentally, Chinese mining in China, Africa and South America makes the worst US mine look like a clean room. We’re talking massive strip mining and water cannons, as well as lots of people working with shovels as opposed to earth moving equipment.
Then, during the Trump years China threatened to stop selling all rare earth materials to the US as a trade negotiation tactic. Trump asked a company to reopen the largest US mine and it did so, meeting the most stringent EPA requirements of the time. I don’t know what percentage of US needs that company can supply, or which materials they mine, but the quote I read from the CEO said he expected it would supply a lot. Now, will Biden order the EPA to shut them again?
As far as the Left is concerned, things like Lithium for car batteries is fine, so long as it isn’t mined in the US, because the US must always remain pristine and untouched. Thus, places like California, that practically floats on oil, can’t pump it. There are hundreds of miles of electric lines down the California coast leading to two Mexican coal fired power plants, literally a stone’s throw from the California border. I didn’t see a single cable leading from those plants into Mexico. Just imagine how much copper had to be mined so that the coal smoke, which “totally” (valley speak) will not drift over California, could be kept in a foreign country. (Gawd, I hate liberals.)
As a matter of historical perspective, when a material, such as natural rubber in WWII, becomes unavailable, technology provides a substitute that is often better. So, go ahead and ban the sale. In a year the US need for the materials will probably disappear and the US will be supplying a superior substitute and competitive prices to the world.
There is a pretty good deposit of Bastnaesite (which contains some samarium, but mostly cerium and lananthium, not far from me that I did some development work on for a friend that owned the mines, back in the 1970s.) and a few other various rare earth deposits in this state, and neighboring states, and in California, (not that the government of California is going to cooperate with mining it any more than the current rulers of the nation would)
We also even have a little cobalt over in the western part of the state as a minor component of a once very rich silver mine, but unfortunately not a lot of cobalt in the US. Canada has a good amount of cobalt, but since Trudeau has turned Canada over to the Chinese I guess that won't be much help.
How did we make good weapons of war before the use of rare earths became common? I bet we could do that again, even if it adds to the weight and size of components to do the same tasks. We used to have some pretty good engineers in this country that could have figured it out. Not so sure we have that resource anymore though.
Very good post.
When one looks at the actions of the Left through this prism, it is impossible to view them as anything other than short-sighted and ignorant at best, and anti-American and treasonous at worst.
Personally, I think the anti-American and treasonous characterization is far more viable.
And again, it shows the factual fundamental truth that President Donald J. Trump was acting, AGAIN, in the best interests of America.
Greenland. Plenty of room on US base to process the plentiful elements.
Well, I guess, if not expected, this is what you get for allowing the Chinese to grab control of the rare earth market(s)......
Some others being developed:
UCORE, Bokan Range in Alaska;
NioCorp, Elk Creek Mine in Nebraska;
Texas Mineral Resources Corp, Roundtop mountain in Texas.
RioTinto has begun scandium mining in Canada.
There are other if you want to research them.
Yeah but production is also linked to mining. India and South Africa have the elements in their countries.
Didn’t President Trump buy Greenland? Or was that Iceland?
I think he joked about it. Lots of laughs but the base is real and the natural resources are there. The people could become very wealthy
Norway shares the oil wealth and its a great deal for the citizens.
Through his vassal Bits Me.
I am going on just a bit of info I’ve heard, but aren’t a lot of these minerals being mined in Africa, that is under CCP control (they have been taking over Africa for years)? Now, go look at Worldometer, the covid 19 data info site. Isn’t it odd that Africa has not been hit with Covid 19? S.Africa has had it’s outbreaks, but S. Africa is very different than the rest of Africa. Perhaps I’m wrong here, but it is quite odd.
The continental US has some serious deposits of rare earths just waiting to be developed. The only thing standing in the way are green resistors. Naturally.
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