China's rare-earth monopoly - U.S. should restart mining to end vulnerability

Washington Times ^ | October 20, 2010 | Gal Luft and Yaron Vorona

[muawiyah]

Actually, the Davy Crockets were considered a massive step forward in tactical nukes. They replaced the famous ATOMIC ARTILLERY SHELL which, when used, left the artillery piece, and the crew, within the blast zone!

We were supposed to be kind of outside the blast zone ~ and then march through (I would suppose).

Still, the shielding on those things wasn't all that great. The base I was on was selected as a concentration point when the rockets were pulled out. They had us guarding those things night and day, 24/7 ~ wearing exposure badges.

They had guard dogs there too ~ and they had badges.

Then there were the nuclear landmines. The Air Force controlled those devices ~ they were larger and needed the use of the special machinery Air Force always had to handle their other nukes.

Our mission was changed from having nukes to simply guarding the Air Force while they put nukes UNDER the Main River. The theory was they'd blow up the river bed, flood a lot of land, and leave the Russian Army nothing but a sea of radioactive mud to roll through.

Hmm ~ we didn't have any mission after that ~ well, hand out the vehicles to the German reservists in the area. Didi South probably ~ to the Alps.

[SomeCallMeTim]

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. I agree that China has the right to decide to keep their own raw materials for use in internal industry... but, the WAY they have done this is the problem.

First of all, there USED TO BE other RE mines in various countries...even in the US and France. But, China ran them all out of business with serious dumping of low cost material. Now, they have created an artificial shortage with their sudden, un-announced withdrawal from the market.

This kind of behavior is highly disruptive to world markets.

The other point I would make is... China is NOT reserving Cerium for internal use.. they HAVE little to no use for it internally... From what we hear, the internal price has collapsed, and inventories are building..

What they are doing is.. trying to force hi-tech manufacturing that uses to RE to relocate to China... so, it will be easier to STEAL the technology.

I don't know if the WTO is smart enough to understand this.. or, if they do understand, if they have rules against it. But.. I understand it. It's a crappy way to do business... and, Western CEO's had better figure out a way to deal with it.

[neverdem]

Thanks for the link.

[fallujah-nuker]

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.

The danger here is that we could ramp up production, and then Red China could flood the market and drive the prices below our cost of production. And then we'd have folks here screaming about overpaid American welfare miners who cannot compete. The folks who supported the bailouts for the moneychangers of Manhattan, and supported shipping Magnequench to Communist China.

[Carry_Okie]

It is a report that is terribly under-appreciated.

[neutronsgalore]

The danger here is that we could ramp up production, and then Red China could flood the market and drive the prices below our cost of production.

Especially since we don't have politicians with the balls to put tariffs in place the instant they try to undercut us.

[neverdem]

I got in on the tail end of the US Army's use/nonuse of what were called Davy Crocket Rockets.

Did you have an infantry or artillery military occupational specialty? IIRC, they were to be assigned to infantry battalions.

[muawiyah]

11F40

[neverdem]

Thank you. I believe all they have now as enlisted are 11B, 11C & 11H.