Posted on 11/04/2025 11:43:11 AM PST by E. Pluribus Unum
We can't have a strong defense industrial base without the ability to make things here at home.
Jim Banks serves as the junior United States Senator from the state of Indiana.
Making things here in the United States matters, especially the supplies and materials we would need during war or a crisis. That’s why it makes no sense that we allow the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), America’s greatest adversary, to have so much power over the flow of supplies that keep our economy and military running.
But for decades, American leaders from both parties allowed China to take greater and greater control over essential supply chains and manufacturing capacity. One of the best examples is rare earth minerals. These minerals are a key component in many advanced electronics and weapons systems, like drones and fighter jet engines. Without them, America cannot build computers or defend itself against foreign adversaries.
Yet today, China dominates global rare earth mineral supply chains. It’s responsible for approximately 60% of worldwide production and 85% of high-tech processing after the raw minerals are mined.
The United States was once the top global producer of rare earths. One of those companies, Magnequench, was based in my home state of Indiana. Magnequench used rare earths to make specially designed magnets for the U.S. military during the 1980s and 1990s. At one point, Magnequench produced 85% of the magnets the Pentagon used for its missiles and bombs.
However, China came to realize that they were sitting on their own abundance of rare earths and that they could one day dominate this important industry. As the Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping infamously told state media back in the early 1990s: “The Middle East has oil, China has rare earths.”
They soon put...
(Excerpt) Read more at commonplace.org ...
If someone wants to mine the top of a 12,060’ mountain outside of Salida, Colorado, they could find some rare earths. They tend to be concentrated in a strange rock known as carbonatite, which is igneous-formed calcite. As opposed to the common variety that most sea shells are made out of. I have several hand samples of it from when I climbed up there at field camp. I should get it tested. It is the northernmost peak of the Sangre de Christo Range.
Oh, it is called Simmons Peak.
China came to dominate the rare earth mining and processing field when Bill Clinton shut down US production for his friends in Indonesia and made the major US mine site into a National Preserve, where it remains to this day.
The big trade deal was supposed to get signed . . . when? It was to flesh out the “framework” agreed on. The US side released statements about what was in it, but I have not heard of the specific, detailed deal that both sides were to sign.
Rather many articles are appearing and talking as if it was all fleshed out and signed.
The only thing that matters is the magnets. Neodymium and samarium. We don’t have them. We may try to recycle old ones but the processing is not much less than refining the raw ore — and there is more or less consensus that this is not going to happen at scale for 10+ years.
So what is going on? Was it THIS week the framework was to be fleshed out? Note that the framework did NOT include neodymium magnets. It specified a 1 year delay on the export controls for other materials, but not the refined magnets. China is not stupid. They would never agree to that without enormous US concessions.
The raw material yes. Not refined into magnetic material. That stuff should still be under Chinese export control — but I see articles pretending as if this isn’t happening.
All that talk about how the material was important to The World, but . . . where is the text of the deal for these magnets (without which, btw, society cannot function)? There are quotes from Bissent and others about how alternatives can be or have been found, but if that is so then why was this ever an issue, as it has been for months?
One of the first songs I bought on ITunes.
https://www.niocorp.com/elk-creek-project/
Its about 20 miles SW from the Buried Mid Continent Rift.
Oh, if you’ve got land there, you are in the chips, my boy.
Hey, Senator, Congress basically, legislatively, GAVE THEM that power. Fix your mess and stop moaning on about it by writing articles.
Clinton turned Escalante into a national monument for the benefit of the Indonesian James Riady.
Mrs. Clinton arranged the sale of uranium to our good friends, the Russians. Not sure that’s a rare earth.
Not having the freedom to drive is considered a good thing by the elites, who would still be able to do so.
I’m not driving. I am traveling.
I wish them luck. The rift runs across much of the mid-continent so lots of running room.
Clinton turned Escalante into a national monument for the benefit of the Indonesian James Riady.
Mrs. Clinton arranged the sale of uranium to our good friends, the Russians. Not sure that’s a rare earth.
—
That was 40% of the US reserve of Uranium which is not a rare earth.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.