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The US actually has a lot of rare earth minerals, however, mining halted in around 2002 because of environmental concerns and cheaper prices from China. Domest
by kqr2 16y ago
The US actually has a lot of rare earth minerals, however, mining halted in around 2002 because of environmental concerns and cheaper prices from China. Domestic mining will probably pick up again.
http://news.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2010/09/chinese-threat-on-rare-earth-minerals.html http://news.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2010/09/chinese-th...
http://www.molycorp.com/ http://www.molycorp.com/
Also:
Throughout the halt on exports of rare earth minerals, China has allowed exports of manufactured products that use them, like powerful magnets, and highly purified rare earth metals.
Note that they allow the sale of purified rare earth metals; just not the raw minerals. Also, since a lot of parts and sub-assemblies are made in China, this will probably lessen the impact.
- sasvari 16y agoNote that they allow the sale of purified rare earth metals; just not the raw minerals. Also, since a lot of parts and sub-assemblies are made in China, this will probably lessen the impact. They might just want to have some more elements of the value added chain ... I don't really think they want to mess with Japan, US and Europe at the same time about that issue. But I may be wrong with that ...
- ojbyrne 16y agoThe first paragraph says they've also stopped shipments to Europe.
- cabalamat 16y ago> I don't really think they want to mess with Japan, US and Europe at the same time about that issue. I agree. It wouldn't be in China's interest to piss off everyone else, particularly all at the same time. As you say, China probably just wants to do more value-added stuff.
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- baguasquirrel 16y agoThe article mentions that it could take some time for mining to pick up again. Now how would feel about this if we'd outsourced all of our farming to one particular country and that country suddenly decided not to sell us any? Or if a sizable number of them got together to impose an embargo on us? Naturally, this sort of thing is just not meritocratic and leads to higher prices for everyone, but you'd be a talking head if you didn't recognize the limitations to our most cherished ideologies.