Molycorp (US) and Lynas (Austalia) are reving up to begin production again at their mines. In 3 years, all will be well again. These two companies are excellent stock market plays, IMHO.
Posted on 10/24/2010 11:11:36 AM PDT by neverdem
It's not "pretty close", it IS economic warfare! And it's been going on since the end of WW2, first with Japan. Then South Korea, Taiwan, and finally China. And they're winning.
Yep... You're right.
Like many wars lately, we don't even seem to be fighting.
“But the Chinese have no experience filling out all the environmental permits needed to get a mine started in the US. Of course the government could send them to school on our dime and teach them first. Then in 10 or 20 years we could get a mine on line in the US”
Sure. And further, the U.S Government could subsidize the Chinese company by offering it low interest loans to start up here. It would be unfair not to.
I grind on 2% thoriated TIG welding electrodes all the time.
Nothing glows. I make it a point to not inhale the dust, but plenty of TIG welders all over the US are exposed to thorium every day. 2% Thoriated tungsten electrodes are, without doubt, the most common TIG welding electrode out there. Have been for years and years and years. Ain’t no one glowing.
I also work on old radios. The tungsten filaments in old vacuum tubes were thoriated as well. It improved electron emission from the cathode. Never had a problem there either.
My point is, thorium has been used for decades in industry, and in applications where it could even be aerosolized (eg, grinding TIG electrodes)- and yet we’re just not hearing much of any problems about it.
You have to exercise care with any heavy metal mining. Heck, even base metal mining can create a mess. We have long had the technology to do it properly.
Well, do what the Free Trade advocates advocate. File a complaint with the WTO.
I’m sure they’ll get RIGHT on this for you.
If you look around the US and South American mining industry right now, you’ll see that the PRC is buying shares in all manner of mines, and when they buy these major blocks of equity interest, they also negotiate prices and delivery amounts for the outputs of these mines.
In other words, Americans do the digging, the PRC gets the metal and a chunk of the profits.
Yup, the earth runs on nuclear power.
BTW, regarding "problems from stuff" you hear about that over the long haul. It took a while but one day somebody woke up to the fact that smokers who mined uranium were all dying off pretty quick.
People who mined uranium and didn't smoke didn't have that problem. Smokers who didn't mine had a problem but not that bad.
Sometimes two minor problems can combine to create a really unhealthy situation.
Interesting article....and yes the USA needs to start mining again for rare metals.
The problem is that supporters of Free Trade with Communist China do not want the USA competing with the ChiComs.
Also, note that the near majority of those who support Cap And Trade are also the biggest Free Traders on the planet (Al Gore, Dianne Feinstein, the Clintons, etc...).
If our mining companies can get thru the red tape of Free Traders/WTO/NAFTA etc....then they will have hurdles from the Can And Trade people.
The US did that... a month ago. I'm sure, they'll be getting right on it.. soon.
Well, do what the Free Trade advocates advocate. File a complaint with the WTO.
I’m sure they’ll get RIGHT on this for you.
You have better luck getting a Commie to postpone your political show trial....than having a Free Trader help someone with a WTO claim.
Free Traders are the reason why we are in such a mess with Communist China.
Molycorp (US) and Lynas (Austalia) are reving up to begin production again at their mines. In 3 years, all will be well again. These two companies are excellent stock market plays, IMHO.
Point is that if we are to have a technological world, we need to develop the technologies to both accomplish the great feats and mitigate the negative side effects. The studies show that wealthy countries are the best equipped to solve the issues that arise from our actions. Crippling our economy won`t help our ability to solve problems, it`ll only serve the interests of the tyrants wannabes.
We shouldn`t have to remind a Conservative of that.
Hey, did you realize how many times people have made a mistake about how benign radioactivity is ~ read about the "Radium Girls" someday.
There are reasons people are exceedingly cautious with anything that can be radioactive ~ like carrying exposure devices, installing fixed counters, wearing special clothing, etc.
I got in on the tail end of the US Army's use/nonuse of what were called Davy Crocket Rockets. Before they put you in a position where you could even see one of 'em you were given extensive training in how to deal with potential radiation exposure.
Now those were devices where the radioactive material was sealed up tight and couldn't possibly get out ~ so why did they train us?
Think about it.
Eventually they were discovered to not be "rare", but, at the same time folks discovered radioactivity ~ which meant they had to be very safety minded when it came to initial mining and separation safety standards (that would be crushing, grinding, dissolving in acids, etc.
The Chinese have plenty of people around who are willing to waste human beings rather than work safely. Apparently they discovered some time recently that their "rare earths" mines were creating some hazardous conditions.
Do you recall about several years ago the Chinese had to shut down the water supplies in several major cities (with millions of people) due to mining and toxic industrial waste washing downstream?
So what was that stuff? Do you imagine the authorities were under some serious pressure to "fix the problem"?
Even the Chinese bosses drink water and live downstream.
True. But I have to have a radon evac system in my basement, and I’m hardly living in a mine, so I’m rather more sanguine about the issues. Radon just comes out of the ground in some areas of the US, just as there is uranium laying on the surface in some areas of the US, there’s arsenic and other heavy metals in the water in some areas of the US (naturally).
In the “long haul,” we’re all dead. Doesn’t matter how polly-pure-bred a life we’ve lived, everyone kicks the bucket at some point. The minerals in question are rather useful in modern technology, and we might go so far as to say that they’re economically as necessary as coal. Synergistic effects are absolutely true. Look at the rates of cancer in women who both smoke and take birth control pills. There’s a statistical indication of a synergistic effect. We could save a whole lot more lives by telling women to either quit smoking or quit birth control pills.
I seriously doubt we’re going to tho.
About 70 guys die per year in mining. I really doubt we’re going to get that number much lower at this point. That’s a huge improvement from the past, just as the deaths in farm related accidents has had a serious decline in the last 40 years.
Actually, further back than that:
http://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/dispu_e/cases_e/ds394_e.htm
http://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/dispu_e/cases_e/ds395_e.htm
http://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/dispu_e/cases_e/ds395_e.htm
IMO, these complaints are likely to fail. Every country has the ability to maintain control over the resources within their sovereign lands, especially their homeland. If the PRC doesn’t want to sell rare earths (or other things) to the rest of the world because they’re using them in their own industries, well then, the rest of the world can stand in line.
The PRC sees that they have the ability to become the 800lb gorilla in the whole “clean technology” business, and from their perspective they’re justified in exploiting these minerals for their own economic gain.
And I’m inclined to agree with them.
The minerals in question aren’t “rare” - it is just that the limp-wristed poseurs running western economies don’t want to sully their environmental credentials by advocating the development of mining properties - often within “pristine” wilderness designation areas.
Thanks neverdem. I just want to celebrate...
I agree there is such a thing as being too cavalier about radioactive materials.
At the same time tho, I can point to long-term contamination in mining sites in Nevada from non-radioactive metals like mercury being used to separate gold and silver from the dross. The mercury is now in some streambeds in Nevada in substantial quantities - 140 years later.
So it isn’t that I’m glib about the risks from radioactive material. It is that there are LOTS of mining by-products that could produce really bad health effects. Mining can be done cleanly or can be done dirty. The PRC likes going the down-n-dirty route. People over there are cheap, and their government acts like it every step along the way.
We’ve now taken things to the opposite extreme: BANANA. Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anyone.
By not mining our own materials in accordance with our own regs, we’re basically parties in the contamination and health issues of the PRC’s mining.
re: the Davy Crocketts. I suspect a couple of the reasons for your extensive training on that issue was their small size required no shielding on the device, and the small yields resulted from very poor efficiencies, which probably resulted in an elevated level of highly radioactive byproducts. Was Uncle Sugar expecting you guys to march through the blast zone after you used these things?
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