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Researchers have found a deposit of rare-earth minerals off the coast of Japan that could supply the world for centuries, according to a new study. The study, published in the journal Nature on Tuesday, says the deposit contains 16 million tons of the valuable metals. Rare-earth minerals are used in everything from smartphone batteries to electric vehicles. By definition, these minerals contain one or more of 17 metallic rare-earth elements (for those familiar with the periodic table, those are on the second row from the bottom).

It was recently reported that US President Donald Trump wants to buy Greenland, but what would he actually be getting for his money? Umar Ali takes a look at Greenland’s mineral resources, whether they are worth mining, and why the US could want them. The Kvanefjeld project Greenland currently only has one major mining project, the Kvanefjeld rare earth project launched in 2007. The project is centred on the Ilimaussaq alkaline complex in southwest Greenland, measuring approximately 8km x 15km, it is being developed by Australian company Greenland Minerals. The Kvanefjeld project is thought to be one of the world’s...

(Reuters) - The Pentagon is rapidly assessing the United States' rare earths capability in a race to secure stable supply of the specialized material amid the country's trade conflict with China, which controls the rare earths industry, according to a government document seen by Reuters. The push comes weeks after China threatened to curb exports to the United States of rare earths, a group of 17 minerals used to build fighter jets, tanks and a range of consumer electronics. The Pentagon wants miners to describe plans to develop U.S. rare earths mines and processing facilities, and asked manufacturers to detail...

President Trump’s administration has a “selfish” attitude toward intellectual property rights, a Chinese diplomat said Friday amid the White House's crackdown on IP theft. “No one has the monopoly over the application of IPR to promote social and economic development,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told reporters. “Innovation and IPR shall be harnessed for the progress and benefit of all mankind, instead of being reduced to a tool used by the U.S. to suppress others' development and serve its selfish interests.”

At a campaign event in Springfield, Illinois Wednesday afternoon presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton warned Donald Trump would use the military and IRS "to go after his critics and opponents."

China has scrapped its export quotas for rare earths, minerals used in mobile phones and other high-tech products, after losing a World Trade Organization case brought by Washington and other trading partners over controls that alarmed global technology producers. The change was included in the Ministry of Commerce’s trade guidelines for 2015 but there was no separate announcement. Under the new guidelines, rare earths will require an export license but the amount that can be sold abroad will no longer be covered by a quota. China’s curbs, imposed in 2009, prompted concern about supplies for global technology producers. They led...

In 1986, Deng Xiaoping launched the “863 program”, aimed to gain control of the rare earths market … saying: “The Arab countries have oil; China has rare earths.” […] The Ukraine crisis—and China’s rare earths industrial consolidation and reform—has given Russia an unprecedented incentive to develop a rare earths mining industry, which, in addition to its hydrocarbons, would give it further huge bargaining power on the world economy. It does not have the know-how, technology or refining plants yet, but China can offer these. …

The World Trade Organization has upheld a ruling that China violated trade rules with restrictions on the export of “rare earths,” the minerals used in mobile phones, hybrid cars and other high-tech products. […] China has about one-third of global deposits of rare earths but accounts for more than 90 percent of production. In 2009, it alarmed foreign companies by limiting rare earth exports in an attempt to boost its domestic manufacturing base. …

About face; forward; march! The U.S. Department of Defense recently issued this order in the field of rare earth elements. The unique properties of REEs – a group of 17 previously obscure metals that include scandium, yttrium and the 15 lanthanides – are key ingredients in a number of military applications such as guided missiles, lasers, radar systems, night vision equipment and battlefield communications. China is estimated to supply between 90 and 95 percent of the world’s rare earth oxides, according to a September 2012 report penned by Congressional Research Service. Though these Sino-mined elements are key ingredients to much...

Chinese price manipulation has taken its toll on the U.S. economy Rare earth metals are an increasingly integral part of everything from automobiles to television sets.  But the precious metals are tightly controlled by China, with an excess of 95 percent of current suplly coming from Chinese-owned mines and refineries.  The degree of control has allowed China to manipulate prices, cutting back on demand to sell less material for the same amount of profit, any businessperson's dream. I. New Private-Public Partnership Sets Aim on Chinese Mineral Hegemony The problem is that it takes several years or more to bring rare...

China has started stockpiling rare earths for strategic reserves, a state-backed newspaper said, in a move which may raise more worries over Beijing's control of the coveted resources. China has already started the purchase—using state funds—and storage of rare earths for strategic reserves, the China Securities Journal said, but did not say exactly when the initiative was launched. The country produces more than 90 percent of the world's rare earths, which are used in high-tech equipment ranging from iPods to missiles, and it has set production caps and export quotas on them. Major trading partners last month asked the World...

TOKYO — Japanese high-tech firm Hitachi Wednesday unveiled an electric motor that does not use "rare earths", aiming to cut costs and reduce dependence on imports of the scarce minerals from China. The prototype 11 kilowatt motor does not use magnets containing rare earths and is expected to go into commercial production in 2014, the company said. Hitachi started work on the project on 2008. Other Japanese firms, including automaker Toyota, have been working towards the same goal, spurred on by high prices of the minerals. Permanent magnet motors usually contain rare earth such as neodymium and dysprosium and are...

All Apple iOS devices (iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch) contain heavy rare earth elements. Obama recently filed suit against China regarding abuse of their heavy rare earths monopoly. China restricts and taxes rare earth exports, making it more attractive to manufactures to relocate inside China. The NYTimes article never mentioned REEs (Rare Earth Elements). Only light rare earths are available in USA, it is the heavy that are needed. While it may not be the only factor in Apple's mind when constructing iPads with Foxconn in China, it must be a consideration. Video - Obama, China, Rare Earths - Can WTO...

Jeb Handwerger of www.GoldStockTrades.com joins us for a wide ranging interview covering Rare Earth Metals, Uranium and the intractable US Budget Deficit. Jeb has been following mining stocks for many years and is an authority on Rare Earths, Uranium and other mining sectors. He explains why it's crunch time for the Western World to break China's monopoly on these metals which are vital to modern life as we know it. Rare Earths go into just about every electronic item that we require in our daily lives, from cellphones, to computers, to windmills and automobilies. His view of Uranium is quite...

As the U.S.-led Afghan campaign lurches into its second decade, the country’s vast untapped mineralogical resources are again emerging in the Western media, seemingly underpinning the benefits of International Security Assistance Force troops “staying the course” and defeating the insurgency, after which these resources can be tapped, both providing the administration of Afghan President Hamid Karzai with a source beyond drugs for reconstruction and Western companies who develop the reserves a handsome profit. The latest discovery is that Afghanistan is rich in rare earth elements (RREs). China currently has a near monopoly on the global production of RREs, and the...

Alaska may become Silicon Valley of rare earths Reuters Oct 3, 2011, 01.38am IST Ucore Rare Metals| rare earths TORONTO: A rare earth project nestled into a mountain ridge on Alaska's Prince of Wales Island may unlock a motherlode of resources, bringing needed jobs and opportunity to the state and offering a secure supply of the strategic metals for the high-tech sector.

The prosperity of China’s “authoritarian capitalism” is increasingly rewriting the ground-rules worldwide on the capitalist principles that have dominated the West’s economy for nearly two centuries. Nowhere is this shadow war more between the two systems more pronounced than in the global arena of production of rare earths elements (RREs), where China currently holds a de facto monopoly, raising concerns from Washington through London to Tokyo about what China might do with its hand across the throat of high-end western technology. In the capitalist West, as so convincingly dissected by Karl Marx, such a commanding position is a supreme and...

It’s official – China’s de facto monopoly on current rare earths production is a threat to the global economy. As least, that was the gist of hearings on 21 September by the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific. Center for a New American Security fellow Christine Parthemore ominously intoned, "Reliable access to critical minerals is a matter of both economic and geostrategic importance to the United States. Today, no minerals are more troubling to U.S. security and foreign policy than rare earth elements. Supplies are concentrated mostly in the hands of one...

First, the bad news - China's constrained rare earth supplies will be an "irreversible trend" and prices will remain at high levels, according to Zhang Zhong, general manager of Inner Mongolia Baotou Steel Rare-Earth Hi-Tech Co. Zhang should know, as his concern is China’s leading rare earths producer – the Baatou mine produces more than 95 percent of China’s production, while Chinese mines currently account for 97 percent of global supplies. The increase in global demand for rare earth metals has sent prices soaring in world markets. According to the China Nonferrous Metals Industry Association, since January rare earth metal...

Geologist Matt Joeckel displays a core sample of carbonatite rock containing niobium and rare-earth elements, which was taken from a deposit near Elk Creek, Neb., in early February. (Associated Press) Elk Creek, Neb. (population 112), may not be so tiny much longer. Reports suggest that the southeastern Nebraska hamlet may be sitting on the world’s largest untapped deposit of “rare earth” minerals, which have proved to be indispensable to a slew of high-tech and military applications such as laser pointers, stadium lighting, electric car batteries and sophisticated missile-guidance systems.Canada-based Quantum Rare Earths Developments Corp. last week received preliminary results...