Posted on 05/20/2019 10:30:55 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
China is threatening to take the trade war to the next stage: cut off rare earth metal supplies to US technology and defense industries.
That’s according to a couple of Globaltimes editorials.” US faces squeeze on rare earths,” says one editorial. “US need for rare earths an ace on Beijing’s hand,” goes another.
“Without a reliable domestic supply, the US must rely on rare earths from China to supply industries of strategic importance,” acknowledges Hu Weijia, author of the second editorial.
“Rare earths are vital to many modern technologies and a wide array of weapon systems used by the US military, but China controls the vast majority of the world's supply,” adds Weijia.“It will take many years if the US wants to rebuild its rare-earth industry and increase its domestic supply to reduce its dependence on China's minerals.”
That’s a long time, long enough for China to “win a trade war against the US, during which time China's monopoly on the production of rare earths will help Beijing control the lifeblood of the US high-technology sector.”
Ted Bauman, Senior Research Analyst and Economist at Banyan Hill Publishing, agrees. “If the Chinese implement an export ban and can ride out six months of U.S. tariffs, it could well force Trump to concede,” he says.
Still, he thinks that’s bad idea for China to throw this weapon into the arsenal of the trade war because “China will be seen by the rest of the world as an unreliable trading partner for these critical minerals, leading to rapid development of alternative sources.”
Meanwhile, America could search for new suppliers elsewhere.
“Another potential effect could be the U.S. finding or creating another place to potential mine these minerals,” says Jordan Awoye, Managing Partner at Awoye Capital.
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
I know of a couple of research efforts to reprocess coal mining waste to recover rare earths. Currently very hard to do technically & economically.
Why would we borrow trillions from them? Why would we allow critical machining, computer/hi-tech, manufacturing technology to flood out of this country to a country that considers the U.S. their adversary.
Why hasn't people like Bill Clinton been placed into custody for tech transfers to a communist country. Legislators, corporate leaders playing willy nilly with our intellectual property?
It's freakin messed up when a leader like DJT dares say, “America first, American workers first” and the D.C. / corporate establishment has a meltdown.
“Note to China...rare earth metals are not that rare.”
Are “rare” earth minerals anything like “peak” oil? /s
Sometimes questions are asked to encourage seekers. It’s a teachers trick. Lots of people speak without knowing what the background is. You will notice later links are provided for those who don’t bother to look up the background.
How do you fix declining revenues? Why refuse to sell another of your product lines of course. LOL
Next floor, basement...
“The shrieking and howling of the envrio-green hiker crowd will be epic.”
I don’t believe Trump gives a rat’s patootie about what these nuts think. He’s looking out for all of us and this country as a whole.
Those of us who are miners have been saying that for years.
The Environazis and democrats have slapped so many restrictions and rules on us that we are mostly out of work and have been since the late 80’s.
The only reason China is the leading source of these minerals is their lax environmental and mine safety standard, which makes them a low-cost producer. The market will adjust to any Chinese moves to restrict exports.
YES; the Environazis got to the congress and managed to pass so many rules and regulations you would be breaking the law if you dug a hole in your own backyard.
EPA
BLM
Dept of Interior
Forest Service
Clean Water Act
OSHA
And the list goes on ad nauseam.
Afghanistan may hold 60 million tons of copper, 2.2 billion tons of iron ore, 1.4 million tons of rare earth elements such as lanthanum, cerium and neodymium, and lodes of aluminum, gold, silver, zinc, mercury and lithium.
Estimated at over 1 trillion dollars worth.
Russia, or China would be there in a second if we pulled out.
That applies to many American industries who some seem to think will magically re-appear the moment tariffs are raised. One thing has virtually nothing to do with the other - China may deserve all the tariffs we can slap on their products, but the direct and immediate beneficiaries are going to be producers in other Asian countries.
Eco-lunatics say “mining = bad”. Eco-lunatics are a bane to civil society. The King eco-nut is the idiotic fatso algore. What an absolute loser. The oaf is an expert at becoming wealthy while ruining your country.
China was trying to corner the market some years back - it’s why they were hanging out in Africa.
God gave a big chunk of rare earth metals to Japan for our side... Those need to be secured before the nuts in North Korea nukes ‘em...
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/12/japan-rare-earths-huge-deposit-of-metals-found-in-pacific.html
from link:
A massive, ‘semi-infinite’ trove of rare-earth metals has been found in Japan
Published Thu, Apr 12 2018 4:16 AM EDTUpdated Thu, Apr 12 2018 7:02 PM EDT
There is plenty supply in the USofA. It is just cheaper to get it from China. There is a whole lot in Greenland, too, and last i looked Greenland is not part of the Russian or Chinese sphere. Relyi9ng on getting strategic materials from an avowed enemy nation is not terribly bright.
Here’s some relevant Alaska news
Alaska Rare Earth Metals News Monitoring Service & Press ...
https://rareearthmetals.einnews.com/state/alaska
May 03, 2019 · Alaska remains a potential source for critical rare earth elements as trade dispute with China escalates Rare earth elements really aren’t that rare; they’re just rarely mined. Many in Washington, D.C., particularly those in the Defense Department, see this as a major looming issue.
Xxxx
Maps of potential mining in Alaska
I’m looking forward to them shrieking and howling in vain.
We need to reopen our mines and get away from this stupid environmental head in thee sand mentality. Create our own mines or find new solutions the lack of supplies. We can outlast a 6 months ban by recycling, new supplies, or just biting the bullet and shove it down their throats. China is not and never has been a reliable trading partner.
Interesting article on the US's only remaining rare earth mine.
This sounds like we “used” to have a rare-earth industry. Is this another stupid decision on our part?
__________________________________________
This is not a stupid decision on our part! It is absolutely intentional. We keep believing that the democrats, Obama, Hillary, etc are stupid and making bad decisions. But this is exactly what they wanted to have happen. They are truly against everything in American and want us destroyed as the capitalist country we are. World wide communism can’t compete against the U.S. and our dominance in the world due to capitalism!
This has been intentional result by the Democrats.
That would be prohibitively expensive with ultra low yield.
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