From Slashdot:
The NY Times reports that the Chinese government has placed a trade embargo on all exports to Japan of a crucial category of minerals used in products like hybrid cars, wind turbines and guided missiles.
China mines 93 percent of the world’s rare earth minerals, and more than 99 percent of the world’s supply of some of the most prized rare earths, which sell for several hundred dollars a pound.
The embargo comes after a dispute over Japan’s detention of a Chinese fishing trawler captain whose ship collided with two Japanese coast guard vessels as he tried to fish in waters controlled by Japan but long claimed by China.
The Chinese embargo is likely to have immediate repercussions in Washington. The House Committee on Science and Technology is scheduled to review a detailed bill to subsidize the revival of the American rare earths industry and the House Armed Services Committee is scheduled to review the American military dependence on Chinese rare earth elements.”
This is an interesting but not very significant story. It is perhaps noteworthy that we will do nothing other than “study” on any rare earth problem. This is because we have to keep our China masters happy: Yes, Master – What is thy bidding, Master? Should I keep holding my ankles, Master? Far be it from us to offend the Chicoms!
Why are we surprised to find out things called ‘rare earths’ are, well, rare?
Enough already with these Malthusian arguments. Rare earths are not rare. The U.S. has significant deposits and the world’s largest mine used to operate in California. The U.S. mine was shut down because of the lack of demand, which caused the prices to be low, and increasingly stringent environmental regulations in the U.S., which caused costs to rise above the prevailing prices levels.
More important, as demand has grown and the price has increased, investment is being made to re-open the California mine. Of course, we don’t know what barriers EPA or CARB will create to the re-opening. At the same time. companies are investing in Australia, Canada, and a number of African countries to extract these minerals. All of these investments will be accelerated if China proceeds with its plans to restrict exports. In the end, China will be the loser — because of increased competition and more reliable supply, even China if remains the low cost producer. For those that are dubious, think about the consequences of Nixon’s soya bean embargo. It opened the door to soya bean production in Argentina and Brazil.
GM said:
Problems are solved unpredictably, though you can bet the agents of change will likely be a couple of college dropouts, tinkering day and night in a garage, maybe somewhere in middle America: horny, unhygienic, and the despair of their parents.
I look forward to great things from my son then:-)
GM says:
September 23, 2010 at 11:15 pm:
There is a shortage of rare earth elements. What is this telling you?
That we’re all gonna die unless we bow to your Rule?
Wikipedia (for a change) actually has a decent article about the rare earth elements:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rare_earth_element
“A few sites are under development outside of China, the most significant of which are the Nolans Project in Central Australia, the remote Hoidas Lake project in northern Canada, Mountain Pass in California[19], and the Mt. Weld project in Australia.[20] The Hoidas Lake project has the potential to supply about 10% of the $1 billion of REE consumption that occurs in North America every year.[21]”
They are very common in the earth’s crust, but very diffuse and difficult to mine. Mining tends to cause accumulation of toxic/radioactive materials like thorium. In the USA, the only rare earths mine seems to be Mountain Pass in California.
Good luck to those who need these elements, as you cannot simply clap your hands and create a mining infrastructure! The West got suckered in on this by the Chinese. Those guys mean business.
Yep its called comparative advantage.
Storm in a teacup. In 1994 I advised a Chinese Province to invest in rare earths. I had already seen how they had throttled world markets in tungsten and were doing so with tin.
As others have noted, there’s no shortage of rare earth deposits worldwide. Some rare earths have already been mined but sit in tailings dams unused, because demand was low when they were mined decades ago.
Non-China countries will not be held to ransom by Chinese production. It’s mostly a matter of the political will of a country to start up mines and plant. That’s where the lead in the saddle placed there by the greenies comes into play. They are, as a group, such an ignorant bunch that I can’t understand why they are given traction.
On Climatreprogress half the posts are by a prokaroyates. He can’t touch the shear surge in volume by GM on this board. I suspect the limit on climateprogress for a skeptic would be about 1 or 2 posts max before they are banned.
REPLY: If they are known by name, often zero. But always fun to try. – Anthony
North America seems to have a good amount of rare earth elements. We have a surplus of interference from OSHA and the EPA. In China there are very minimal mining safety regs and restrictions.
Isn’t this why we are in Afghanistan? didn’t they recently hit the jackpot of RE minerals there?
Oh, don’t subsidize new mining operations. Subsidies mean the taxpayers are paying for it. Do we then own it?
Make it profitable by decreasing the bureaucracy and taxes. Offer free surveying maybe, but let free enterprise jump on it. The investment money will show up in piles so fast and we will be off and running.
Seeing that Lanthanides occur at concentrations of around 2000ppm in Hickory trees in the Eastern USA I hope nobody gets busy chopping them down, unless things get really desperate.
China seems to have 75% of the worlds reserves , while the USA has about 14%. In 2000 the USA produced about the same amount as China.
How about cutting off the supply of technology and procedures to China. Their only edge in the market is our technology and cheap slave labor. I forgot, from what I hear because of our debt they practically own us. How did that happen? Certainly not because of rare earths and minerals.
GM says:
September 24, 2010 at 2:41 am:
Oh, one thing you can be definitely sure of is that the NIMBYs will show up as soon as such mines are reopened anywhere close to a populated place (most of them are in remote areas anyway though).
Agreed, GM, so what are you personally doing in regard to your own lifestyle so as to lessen your own contribution to “ecological overshoot” – and thus to promote “sustainability” and help avoid the apocalypse?
“So, MISTER Watts, you want windmills, hybrids and magnets?? *BWAHH-HAA-HAA!*”
Regards, President Hu Jintao
http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2010/09/23/is_china_making_a_rare_earth_power_play
——–
These types of resource/commodity power-play maneuvers usually backfire, as others have mentioned. Still, the timing is interesting…
I suspect that China may also be posturing ahead of Cancun. This is a shot across the bow of the West, who want to reduce carbon emissions with wind power etc. Perhaps they are saying “Don’t pressure us on emissions reductions!” ?
Let’s see: The EPA makes it difficult or more expensive to conduct rare-earth mining operations, so the mines close down. Now the Congress is considering subsidizing rare-earth mining operations, to get them going again.
I suppose it is no surprise that our ever-helpful Federal government is working at cross-purposes. This is the kind of snafu-building we used to read about in third-world countries. How do we avoid becoming one ourselves?
/Mr Lynn
I sometimes wonder why you guys even indulge GM and others like him/her… however it’s been fun watching him/her demonstrate supreme ignorance. I’ll summarize:
First we get:
“And before anyone raises the tired canard about rare earth elements not being that rare in the crust”
Followed by multiple posts explaining that, in fact, rare earth elements are not that rare in the crust. GM takes that as humorous (and takes it personally), however score one for everyone other than GM. This is an absolutely perfect example of someone who thinks they know something, but in fact they are very, very wrong.
Oddly enough, this mirrors the petroleum industry, but I won’t go there.
Then, perhaps realizing that something’s up with the “rare” part of “rare earths”, GM switches to informing us that our sanity is in question, and that high tech can not function without these “rare earths”. Well, it can. There is not a single “high tech” item that can ONLY be made with a particular material, it just happens to be more cost effective or efficient or some other desirable trait.
In an attempt to deflect attention away from the fact that he/she has grossly failed in this thread, GM moves to the shotgun approach, wildly listing catastrophic problems our society faces… then, oddly, comes up with one accurate and problematic thing:
“Oh, one thing you can be definitely sure of is that the NIMBYs will show up as soon as such mines are reopened anywhere close to a populated place”.
I’m still trying to figure out if that’s a warning or a threat…
China fail ????
We’ll we will just have to see what their leadership is willing to do. Past leaders of China have been willing to do quite a bit to stay in power. How much is the dis-satisfaction in rural China where the people are looking to be included in the new found prosperity? How about the unemployed or the people working 80 hours a week, or the people seeing their children work along side them????
The people of China have seen the emergence of the modern world in China, but the spread has greatly slowed. The Tiger has risen and many do not feel the effects.
So, how does China keep control?? Do they need to?? If they do, I see two directions, one would be to beat the citizenry into submission, which they have shown they are willing to do.
Or, generate another need for the Tiger to rise. And they have done that, and are they already doing that?? Is this news story just part of that??????
They have ramped up the rhetoric over Japan and Taiwan. There is a lot of racial bias against Japan in China (duh), and they believe Taiwan is their rightful property.
When China honestly believes they can hold off the willing Allied forces, I believe they will make a play for Taiwan. Unite the country behind the goal. IF Japan moves to defend Taiwan, the Chinese government will have a force to be able to unite the country behind the government, feed on the racial hatred of the Japanese and start conventional war.
And of course the side benefit of a conventional war, many young male to middle age males will be lost. Something China has a surplus of!!
Not saying this is going to happen, but I do believe there is a non-zero probability.
Then it’s time for the Japanese to go to Peru in SA or Australia to get those rare earths and rare elements they need for supplying green-nuts with their green toys they need.
BTW the best battery with low weight , which we use in our body(*), is the one and only of the Elements Table: Iron. It was invented by an Spaniard, at the beginning of the 20th. century, and, as far as I remember, that Spaniard guy died mysteriously after engaging in making an electrical powered car.
(*)Hemoglobin, as you all know, owes its characteristic red color to Fe+3 (arterial blood) , when oxidized by oxygen, and then reduces to Fe+2 giving us the electrons we need to work.
It all makes for an interesting problem. Where we’re trying to wean ourselves from dependence on $75/barrel mid-east oil only to be dependent on $200/lb chinese rare earths.
Reminds me of my high school physics teacher pounding into us the core of science..”You don’t get something for nothing”
Olen says:
September 24, 2010 at 7:55 am
…How did that happen? Certainly not because of rare earths and minerals.
LOL!. Kind of…..because of rare guys with strange wishes. 🙂
DJ Meredith says:
September 24, 2010 at 8:34 am
There is a VERY CHEAP solution: Start powering electric cars with IRON batteries. (see my post above)
…and BTW another one CHEAPER: “Drill, baby, drill!”
Why China is the dominant rare-earth producer.
By the way, the waste is radioactive because thorium often occurs in rare-earth ores. Currently there is no use at all for thorium, but potentially, it’s a nuclear fuel more abundant than uranium. ORNL ran a molten salt reactor experiment for years back in the 1960s, thorium was one of the fuels they tested, successfully.
Sorry, Chinese did it already:
http://autonews.gasgoo.com/china-news/byd-auto-admits-iron-battery-talks-with-vw-090424.shtml