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China Moving To Restrict Neodymium Supply

Posted by Soulskill on from the not-for-all-the-tea-in-oh-wait dept.

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."

9 of 477 comments (clear)

  1. Proof free trade is a failure. by tjstork · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

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    This is my sig.
  2. Rare Earths Not Necessarily Rare by CodeBuster · · Score: 5, Informative

    This has been discussed here on Slashdot before, but rare earths are not as difficult to mine and produce as the term "rare" implies; they are rare only in a relative sense compared to other common elements of the Earth's crust. They are mostly not rare on the same order as gold or platinum group metals, although there are exceptions. There are plenty of sources for most of these elements in the continental United States and other nations outside of China; it just costs a certain amount of money to mine and refine them. If China chokes off supplies from their own mines and processors then it will make those same sorts of mines and processors cost-competitive again here in the United States and elsewhere in the world. This really isn't that big of a deal.

    1. Re:Rare Earths Not Necessarily Rare by Trepidity · · Score: 5, Informative

      Yeah, the current Chinese monopoly on current production for many of the elements is just because they've undercut all other producers, so rare earths are too cheap to be worth mining outside of China. There was quite a lot of rare-earth mining in the U.S. in the 1980s and 90s, and many of those mines are still waiting to be restarted when the price gets high enough to be worth it. Here's a timeline from the largest U.S. miner (currently not mining, but sitting around processing some existing stocks of ore).

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      10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
  3. Re:Obviously by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I always have to wonder at what point the "if you owe the bank $10,000 you have a problem, if you owe the bank $10,000,000 they have a problem" principle kicks in...

    The willingness of China to send actual goods(at the cost of deferring domestic consumption) in exchange for little green US treasury gift cards as some sort of neo-mercantilist scheme is rather convenient.

  4. More detail on this topic. by GuyFawkes · · Score: 5, Informative

    The following link is ESSENTIAL reading

    http://seekingalpha.com/article/178225-on-the-rare-earth-crisis-of-2009

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    http://slashdot.org/~GuyFawkes/journal
  5. Re:Well if that's not a case for invasion by PatDev · · Score: 5, Informative

    Umm, the Chinese did not cut off the supply of Opium. They cut off the demand for opium. The British were illegally smuggling opium from India into China, then the Chinese enforced their laws, leading to war.

  6. Re:and why not ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    > Another factor in the trade deficit is their willingness to simply rip off Western IP

    And the fault for that lies where, exactly? With the countries dumb enough to shift their economy to make trivially copied virtual products? Or the one smart enough to create actual goods which other people want to buy?

    Yep, I thought so. One side is being an idiot. The other is being smart. News flash! Smart eventually wins.

  7. Re:and why not ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Shhh! What the hell are you trying to do? Crap on the next economic bubble before it even gets started? Just shut the fuck up and be glad Big Brother gives you an energy ration at all!!!

  8. Re:and why not ? by timeOday · · Score: 5, Informative

    Oh brother. Any issue with rare earth elements is completely dwarfed by our billion dollar per day dependency on foreign oil. Refusing to see the vast difference in scale between the two is completely irrational.