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China Moving To Restrict Neodymium Supply
GuyFawkes writes with this quote from the Independent:
"Britain and other Western countries risk running out of supplies of certain highly sought-after rare metals that are vital to a host of green technologies, amid growing evidence that China, which has a monopoly on global production, is set to choke off exports of valuable compounds. Failure to secure alternative long-term sources of rare earth elements (REEs) would affect the manufacturing and development of low-carbon technology, which relies on the unique properties of the 17 metals to mass-produce eco-friendly innovations such as wind turbines and low-energy light bulbs. China, whose mines account for 97 per cent of global supplies, is trying to ensure that all raw REE materials are processed within its borders. During the past seven years it has reduced by 40 per cent the amount of rare earths available for export."
They have fought to secure those same elements and done their homework. it gives them an economic advantage with both manufacturing and raw mining/refining done in the same place. most western countries in the same position would do the same as would any corporate entity in the western hemisphere. they can export the finished products at a huge markup compared to what they would get for raw minerals.
The whole point of free trade was to unlink, fundamentally, resources from national ownership. Now that the Chinese have crossed the rubicon on the basic issue of access to materials on open markets, what is really the point of pretending that they are genuinely interested in free trade? Do we still want to pretend that they are interested in moving towards western liberalism. As much as Republicans called liberals Chamberlins on other issues, conservatives still ignoring the growing failure of free trade with the east are really, fundamentally, the genuine Chamberlins of our day. I hope they choke on their Walmart stock.
This is my sig.
Sounds like the WTO could have a bit of leverage considering how much comes out of China right now that could be gradually restricted...
And replaced with what? And what if the Chinese decide to retaliate and simply shut down exports for a couple of months? Who do you think will cry uncle first?
"The average reporter we talk to is 27 years old......They literally know nothing." - Ben Rhodes
Time to explore for new deposits. If the price of rare earth elements increases enough, it'll be worthwhile. Australia, the American west, and Africa still have vast unexploited mineral wealth.
the first is just the irony of the country touted as having "A Bad Human Rights Record" (when in fact they are just using common sense to keep control over 1.3 billion people)
What the...?
People don't say that China has a bad human rights record because of the One Child Policy. They say that for, among other things, the One China Policy. Did you hear about the unrest of the Tibetans and the slaughter they endured as a result? Did you hear about the Uyghur towns in XinJiang Province wherein the government went in one day saying that everyone needs to be in their homes tomorrow or be shot and then coming through the next day and killing everyone on the streets?
You seem like a relatively informed person, did you hear about the rocket tests that destroyed entire towns?
How about the supremely corrupt officials covering up reports of lakes polluted to the point of poisoning absolutely every last person in the bordering towns?
Don't get me wrong. I love China. Wonderful place, great people, amazing food, and a beautiful land. But that government is abhorrent when it comes to treating its people right.
Sometimes, you can, you go to hell for the rest of your life! That's a true thing.
I dunno whats more funny: idiots here who still use words such as "free trade" when describing USA or idiots who are going along with the corporate owned media in bashing CHina when it's obvious this is just another article to create some kinda problem to try to impose some kinda sanctions on CHina at WTO level.
I got permanently modded -1 because I dared to question Israel on
What "4 to 5 times of" do western industrialized nations produce more of (limited to manufactured articles), and of those, how many "things" that are still produced in the west are in at least part dependent on Chinese manufactured components? Remember it takes all of the parts to make a "whole". "Assembled in western nation" is not the same for the economy as "totally manufactured in western nation". Or just "rebadged and sold in western nation with a corporate name that reflects a contract in a drawer in Delaware" is not the same as totally manufactured and sold in western nation.
And within that ratio, how much of a percentage of various national economies does that really represent? Example,. if western nation A produces 4-5 times as many automated shoe lace tiers, is that really something to brag on? Ok here's one that still really exists, big commercial airplanes, still mostly made in the west, this is a gimmee, (although china's domestic airplane production is rapidly advancing), but how much of a big new airliner is dependent on chinese parts? How about autos? How about high tech new medical equipment? Stuff like that.
Or are you including such things as **AA "copies" being worth such and such according to their figures, along with casino banking paper financial theoretical products like those wonderful collateralized debt obligation pieces of paper, all of those non product products, and just printed up pictures of dead political leaders being passed off as real products?
There's this rosy picture wall street and DC talking heads "economy" that includes debt being called an asset, the same one that needed trillions in emergency inflationary pictures of dead political leaders to "keep afloat" (same in Europe), then there is the real no BS economy, so which are you referring to?
The global economy is an illusion. China controls its exchange rate. If they let it float, chinese products would double
triple or maybe even 10X in price almost overnight. China controls imports thru numerous techniques (as do we and everyone else).
They just recently clamped down on even what web sites will be visible. China is a tightly controlled economy which plans on being number 1 in 5 to 10 years. They think long term and are willing to abuse its citizens in the process. My big worry is once they get those subs they are bulding up & running, the west is screwed. They will now be able to offer the one "product" that up until now, only we could offer. Security. Imagine if you are the Arab nations with all that oil and you can either trade with the US and collect "dollars in an account" and a guarantee of protection or you can get "computers, cars, boats, appliances, furniture, pillows, blankets, screws, bolts, steel, aluminum, pipe, tools, and pretty much anything you want" AND protection from the chinese, who would you sell your oil to? For that matter, ANY raw material producing country will do biz with the chinese, not us. China has played the capitalists over the past couple of decades very well.
I saw a documentary a few months ago where the Chinese had secured much of the lithium (as in batteries) mines and were negotiating in Bolivia if I remember correctly for their undeveloped resources which apparently are enormous. The problem here isn't China hoarding up the resources.. imho, it's our next quarter mentality.
a return to subsistence-style living and community-driven societies
We have over 6bn people on this planet. If we all went back to subsistence farming, 3/4 or the world will begin to starve in very short order. Starving people tend to do weird things, like start wars, skirmishes, riots and things like that - over suddenly scarce resources (oh like, I dunno... food supplies , arable land, things like that?)
...with countries like Poland, who have just absolutely amazing self-reliant and vibrant communities...
It's not a question of being lazy - it's a simple question of logistics that don't fit the paradigm, no matter how utopian and pretty it seems on the surface. There's also the the fact that a subsistence population tends to have astronomically higher birthrates, which tends to increase the pressures instead of alleviating them (but then with the return of disease and a higher child mortality rate, coupled with a lower life expectancy, who knows?)
...are you ready for that change...
I suggest extra ammunition and a rather large stockpile of MRE's until the excess population either dies of starvation or kills each other off. Defensible modifications to your house would help as well. May want to move to a sparsely-populated area as well and ride it out there.
-OR-
I suggest that you've spent way too many evenings watching Life After People re-runs, and fantasizing about some sort of post-armageddon future where you get to re-populate a shattered Earth with a gaggle of cute chicks who look to you as some sort of leader... or similar. May not want to close on that farmhouse in Idaho just yet, though.
It is my contention that:
1) The whole "Peak Oil" thing is somewhat of a sham, given that technology is emerging beyond a dependence on petroleum (we should be there completely within a couple of decades under normal market conditions, and if oil does start to become scarce, I'm certain that we'll get there even sooner due to simple market pressures). That said, it does have its uses in getting people to move to cleaner tech sooner (and no, you don't necessarily need Chinese rare earth metals to do it - see also hydroelectricity, monocrystal photovoltaics, etc).
2) China isn't the one and only repository of rare earth metals on this planet - if sufficiently motivated, I suspect that other sources will be found and/or synthesized if need be. Also, there are alternate means of creating clean tech w/o using rare metals to do it - it's all a question of economics and need.
3) People have been constructing and selling apocalyptic vision ever since St. John wrote his version on the Isle of Patmos. May not want to hold your breath just yet.
Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
"Future wars will be fought not about oil but rare earth materials."
Nonsense. The model for getting those already exists in Africa, where one pays the locals what the market will bear and they handle the light work,
War disrupts mining, while unconventional logistics route around inconvenient situations.
"This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."