A piece of bastnasite ore, which contains rare earth elements, is shown by Brock O'Kelly from Molycorp Minerals Mountain pass Mine in Mountain Pass, Califonia August 19, 2009. REUTERS/David Becker
Posted on 08/31/2009 8:58:12 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – The Prius hybrid automobile is popular for its fuel efficiency, but its electric motor and battery guzzle rare earth metals, a little-known class of elements found in a wide range of gadgets and consumer goods.
That makes Toyota's market-leading gasoline-electric hybrid car and other similar vehicles vulnerable to a supply crunch predicted by experts as China, the world's dominant rare earths producer, limits exports while global demand swells.
Worldwide demand for rare earths, covering 15 entries on the periodic table of elements, is expected to exceed supply by some 40,000 tonnes annually in several years unless major new production sources are developed. One promising U.S. source is a rare earths mine slated to reopen in California by 2012.
Among the rare earths that would be most affected in a shortage is neodymium, the key component of an alloy used to make the high-power, lightweight magnets for electric motors of hybrid cars, such as the Prius, Honda Insight and Ford Focus, as well as in generators for wind turbines.
Close cousins terbium and dysprosium are added in smaller amounts to the alloy to preserve neodymium's magnetic properties at high temperatures. Yet another rare earth metal, lanthanum, is a major ingredient for hybrid car batteries.
Production of both hybrids cars and wind turbines is expected to climb sharply amid the clamor for cleaner transportation and energy alternatives that reduce dependence on fossil fuels blamed for global climate change.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Ron Paul should be able to find a replacement. He seems to think that we do not need to be engaged in world affairs anymore.
So what’s his plan?
China has decided to hoard them.
Well, now when the greenies start talking about “peak oil”, we can answer with “peak neodymium”.
Unexpected consequences.
Exactly
solution is DiL matter-antimatter conversion
Saw it coming. =]
Greenies aren’t idiots. They want us to live in caves and chuck spears at our food. Thats the ultimate goal.
The largest Nickel mines in Europe are in Kosovo. Now controlled by the ROP.
A piece of bastnasite ore, which contains rare earth elements, is shown by Brock O'Kelly from Molycorp Minerals Mountain pass Mine in Mountain Pass, Califonia August 19, 2009. REUTERS/David Becker
We can mine these in the USA, but China’s low prices in years past and heavy Environmental regs here in the USA means USA mines have shut down or are not expanding.
No fear, there is always somebody who wants America to get on her knees and crack ho our way in the world to get what we need.
So....we must rely on Communist China for some of these rare elements to build the “green cars”? Right
More and more....sounds like enviromentalism/greenies and Free Trade Globalists are walking hand in hand....
Becoming dependent on Communist China....
People like Al Gore, George Soros, The Clintons, B Hussein Soetoro-Obama, the late Ted Kennedy, John McCain....all these support Free Trade Globalism and Global Warming-environmental schemes.
American wealth redistribution still at work
Since we aren’t allowed to mine our own rare earth minerals anymore, this hoarding by China will make the prices skyrocket.
I see an interesting future as a scrap metals salvage expert and these cars.
Kinda like homeless people ripping out streetlight wiring and copper plumbing to sell for food money.
All the have-nots will be eying these “green” cars as rolling sources of black market rare metals that can be sold at high prices to make even more of these vehicles.
And some garages still steal your air bag system and fill your steering wheel area with a filler material because the air bag devices fetch top dollar on the street.
Extract the necessary elements from sea water. EVERY natural element that exists in the earth’s crust is dissolved as part of some ion in sea water, and all you have to do is go through several cubic miles of same, combing out all the desired compounds, and discarding the remainder back into the sea.
That is just a general plan, details to be worked out later.
another Wile E. Coyote moment for the Ecoweenies....
And that’s not idiotic? :)
Oh, the irony...
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