Posted on 10/17/2010 2:09:56 PM PDT by Berlin_Freeper
YEKATERINBURG, Russia — Germany will help Japan gain access to vital rare earth minerals which are being withheld by China in a territorial dispute, German Economy Minister Rainer Bruederle said Saturday.
Bruederle was speaking on his way home from a visit to Tokyo where he had talks with Japanese trade and economy ministers Akihiro Ohata and Banri Kaieda.
He said they had raised the possibility of Japan running out of stocks of the commodities vital for the manufacture of electronic goods such as mobile telephones.
In turn Bruederle spoke of eventual joint efforts to explore for new resources of the minerals, more than 90 percent of which are currently produced by China.
While Germany was not currently under threat of losing supplies, it needed urgently to diversify its sources as prices of the minerals rose on world markets.
Bruederle said Berlin and Tokyo wanted to work together to stimulate production in other countries where rare earths are to be found, including Namibia, Mongolia and the United States.
(Excerpt) Read more at google.com ...
In 1945 Germany was helping Japan obtain some other rare earths, Uranium and Plutonium. Thank God they weren’t successful.
You know I bet there are some rare earth minerals in Mongolia, I bet the world could possibly get them there and give some actual competition to China.
Get ready, a new coalition is forming as the US is sitting it out.
there’s some in afghanistan too.
We have them in the U.S., but dingy Harry and his eco-nut pals have been blocking access to them for decades.
They are very likely to be found in the NV Black Rock Desert, which Reid made a wilderness area via last minute amendment to a “must pass” spending bill.
The only active Lithium mine in the U.S. is in Nevada.
During and shortly after W.W. II Tungsten mining was the largest employer in my NV county.
A NV mine was a major supplier of lead in W.W. II, we are not just about Gold, or would not be if the eco-nuts would stop blocking NV and U.S. mine development.
The rare earth’s are too critical to our strategic needs to tolerate China having so much control.
We MUST develop our own sources here and abroad.
Greenland is LOADED!
We have enough to last decades but cant or dont mine them...
That can be said for a number of resources in the US.
Re: Greenland. Really? How likely is developing a mutually beneficial relationship re: rare earths?
There are plenty in the USA, but it was cheaper to use the Chinese supply. If that changes, it will take a few years to get up and mining again, mostly because if envirowacko regulations.
“Rare earths are relatively abundant in the Earth’s crust, but discovered minable concentrations are less common than for most other ores. U.S. and world resources are contained primarily in bastnäsite and monazite. Bastnäsite deposits in China and the United States constitute the largest percentage of the world’s rare-earth economic resources, while monazite deposits in Australia, Brazil, China, India, Malaysia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and the United States constitute the second largest segment. Apatite, cheralite, eudialyte, loparite, phosphorites, rare-earth-bearing (ion adsorption) clays, secondary monazite, spent uranium solutions, and xenotime make up most of the remaining resources. Undiscovered resources are thought to be very large relative to expected demand.”
http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/commodity/rare_earths/mcs-2010-raree.pdf
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