China Halts Rare Earth Exports Globally (fortune.com) 308
Longtime Slashdot reader AmiMoJo shares the news that China has halted all rare earth exports globally -- including to the U.S., Japan, and Germany. Fortune reports: After Trump unveiled his "Liberation Day" tariffs on April 2, China retaliated on April 4 with its own duties as well as export controls on several rare earth minerals and magnets made from them. So far, those export controls have translated to a halt across the board, cutting off the U.S. and other countries, according to the New York Times. That's because any exports of the minerals and magnets now require special licenses, but Beijing has yet to fully establish a system for issuing them, the report said.
In the meantime, shipments of rare earths have been halted at many ports, with customs officials blocking exports to any country, including to the U.S. as well as Japan and Germany, sources told theÂTimes. China's Ministry of Commerce issued export restrictions alongside the General Administration of Customs, prohibiting Chinese businesses from any engagement with U.S. firms, especially defense contractors. While the Trump administration unveiled tariff exemptions on a range of key tech imports late Friday night, China's magnet exports were still halted through the weekend, industry sources told the Times. Beijing's export halt is notable because China has a stranglehold on global supplies of rare earths and magnets derived from them. They also represent an asymmetric advantage in that rare earths constitute a small share of China's exports but have an outsize impact on trade partners like the U.S., which relies on them as critical inputs for the auto, chip, aerospace, and defense industries.
In the meantime, shipments of rare earths have been halted at many ports, with customs officials blocking exports to any country, including to the U.S. as well as Japan and Germany, sources told theÂTimes. China's Ministry of Commerce issued export restrictions alongside the General Administration of Customs, prohibiting Chinese businesses from any engagement with U.S. firms, especially defense contractors. While the Trump administration unveiled tariff exemptions on a range of key tech imports late Friday night, China's magnet exports were still halted through the weekend, industry sources told the Times. Beijing's export halt is notable because China has a stranglehold on global supplies of rare earths and magnets derived from them. They also represent an asymmetric advantage in that rare earths constitute a small share of China's exports but have an outsize impact on trade partners like the U.S., which relies on them as critical inputs for the auto, chip, aerospace, and defense industries.
FAFO (Score:5, Insightful)
Well done Donnie.
Re: FAFO (Score:5, Funny)
Re: FAFO (Score:5, Insightful)
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so much winning! art of the deal!
Re:FAFO (Score:5, Insightful)
He did say that we'd win so much we'd get tired of winning. I'm already sick to death of it!
Rare earth mining outside China now profitable (Score:5, Interesting)
Well done Donnie.
Don't be too quick in your expected outcome. For example China largely has control through predatory pricing. For example a rare earth mining operation in California shut down due to China offering rare earths below their costs. With no rare earth exports from China, mining in California will now be profitable. This may also be the case in many other areas.
Control via predatory pricing requires that you keep shipping products, stop shipping and that control is lost.
We've seen such behavior before, with oil for example. Increase the price and various exploration and acquisition operations becomes viable. Ex offshore oil drilling becoming a viable option with higher prices.
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Re:FAFO (Score:4, Funny)
Naval invasion of Greenland next, I suppose. "We have to stop Greenland's rare earths from falling into the hands of a country with huge reserves of rare earths!" Christ, even the imperialists who speared the Mexican-American War at least tried for some sort of rational justification.
Re: FAFO (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
You must stop your god-hating empiricism and realize that only His Word is reality. All of your senses can only deceive.
If you have proof Trump violated the constitution, that's the illusion of senses. God didn't tell you he violated the constitution, so we know it never happened.
Sensory knowledge is TDS. Senses are the unholy tools of Satan. Reality is unreal. All truth is falsehood, unless is it of divine/magic origin.
Re:FAFO (Score:5, Insightful)
Notice the part about "special licenses"?
This is likely all being done to stop us here in the US from getting rare earth minerals, not the entire world. Once they have their licensing program running they'll likely start exporting again to everyone but us with the threat of a revocation of a country's license if anyone resells to us. The temporary halt is probably just to stop us from stockpiling them while they get the licensing program up and running.
China's actions so far in this trade war have, unlike our own, been very predictable. Given they have no motivation for keeping a ban on the rest of the world in place it seems incredibly unlikely they will.
Re: FAFO (Score:3)
Re:FAFO (Score:5, Insightful)
China's actions so far in this trade war have, unlike our own, been very predictable
And pragmatic. They don't bow to the orange clown like so many other countries. They hold their ground.
Re:FAFO (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:FAFO (Score:5, Insightful)
They have to halt exports to all countries because the US will simply proxy their purchases from other countries
Yes, I said this. Also, as I said, they will likely open back up to other countries again once the licensing program gets going. Otherwise, why make a licensing program? None of our allies will want to resell to us in any meaningful amount and risk losing their license, especially after Trump's recent actions towards them.
Re:FAFO (Score:5, Insightful)
Oh, that's exactly what's happening.
Trump is a fucking idiot running around with a baseball bat. Other countries are actually listening to advisors that understand modern economics and know exactly where to punch to inflict the most damage in the shortest amount of time. And the answer there, is rare earths, and US Treasuries.
Oh look, treasury yields are spiking again...
Re:FAFO (Score:5, Insightful)
Other countries are actually listening to advisors that understand modern economics and know exactly where to punch to inflict the most damage in the shortest amount of time. And the answer there, is rare earths, and US Treasuries.
This is exactly the type of governance one gets when one gets rid of all the experts and replaces them with loyalists (or just ignores the experts that are left). We've already seen this happen in other countries so just like with the trade war, China's actions, and the rest, this level of governmental incompetence was completely predictable.
Project 2025's politicizing of the bureaucracy was always going to lead to this.
Re:FAFO (Score:5, Insightful)
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Well, I guess you enjoy pollution and paying more than you have to, just to stick to the libruls. Why don't you cut off your nose to spite the face while you are at it?
"Stranglehold" ? (Score:3)
Is this still correct ?
I thought we knew years ago that China was trying to shut us out of rare earths and would use them to blackmail us and we were preparing replacement sources?
What happened?
Re:"Stranglehold" ? (Score:5, Informative)
"Rare-earth mineral substitutes could defeat Chinese stranglehold"
https://archive.ph/61ILW
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That's why Trump wants to invade or force Greenland to be a part of USA so that Trump and friends can strip mine the whole island without caring about the environment and the people that live there
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Apart from the immorality and violations of International Law of annexing the territory of a sovereign state, I imagine actually extracting rare earths in Greenland is going to cost a helluva lot more than the price China can extract and sell rare earths for. The plan seems like the delusional rantings of a narcissist suffering mid-stage dementia....
Hmmm....
Re:"Stranglehold" ? (Score:4, Funny)
Art of the deal baby, don't negotiate for those Greenland minerals (do they even exist?) but just threaten war and piss off the other party. That's why we elected him, for those sweet deal making skills.
Re:"Stranglehold" ? (Score:5, Interesting)
They didn't mine them first. They're cheaper because taking over that business was an economic decision made by the government...and stably adhered to.
"Rare Earths" aren't rare, but they're hard to separate. I suspect that China is planning to convert it's "rare earth" production into "more valuable product" production, and sell those products at a markup...and possibly only to friends. But the cost of that supply chain will keep everyone without strong government support out, as China could flood the market at low prices if it chose to.
Re:"Stranglehold" ? (Score:5, Informative)
This has been their published policy for ... more years than I can remember. (As a geologist, I probably pay more attention to mined goods than most people.)
Why sell REEs (at whatever level of refinement) at $10,000/tonne profit, when you can sell products using those REEs at $100,000/tonne profit?
As for substitutes ... you need the right number of protons in the nucleus, to generate the right electron energy levels to have magnetically active electrons at one energy band, while other electrons are at bonding energy levels. That means substitution by transmutation. You can do it - that's how you got plutonium for your nuclear weapons. But it's not going to be either cheap, or environmentally friendly.
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"The US now imports over 90 per cent of its so-called “rare earth” metals from China, according to the US Geological Survey. If China decided to cut off the supply, that would create a big risk of conflict, says Reller. Reller and Graedel say urgent action is required."
https://archive.ph/Q4m9g
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2007 was also the year of peak oil imports to the US.
I know that rare earth wasn't as thoroughly replaced by domestic supplies, I just bring up oil from the same year to point out how useless the article is.
Re:"Stranglehold" ? (Score:4, Informative)
2007 was also the year of peak oil imports to the US.
I know that rare earth wasn't as thoroughly replaced by domestic supplies, I just bring up oil from the same year to point out how useless the article is.
Currently, the US gets "only" 70% of its rare earths from China.
The US has ONE major rare earth mine -- Mountain Pass, in California. But as it happens, most of the processing and refining is done by China.
Re:"Stranglehold" ? (Score:4, Informative)
Yes, because refining is massively polluting, and China doesn't give a fuck about polluting inner Mongolia. [bbc.com]
Re:"Stranglehold" ? (Score:5, Interesting)
Companies with ambitions to develop new mines are thus trapped between a price that makes project returns unattractive for potential lenders and customers that are happy to retain the status quo...Instead of developing a true supply chain-based strategy, the bulk of Western lending seeks to expand supply in an already depressed market.
Perhaps the real answer is that China put a lot more effort into maintaining their monopoly than the other side did in trying to break it. They tried, but somewhat lazily.
... led to the bankruptcy of Molycorp, whose Mountain Pass mine in the United States would later be bought by MP Materials and funded through a series of agreements that gave Chinese company Shenghe control of its output.
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Perhaps the real answer is that China put a lot more effort into maintaining their monopoly than the other side did in trying to break it. They tried, but somewhat lazily.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org].
Sodium ion batteries were being developed at the same time as Lithium batteries, and Lithium won out. Doesn't mean sodium ion batteries don't work.
And we've all been talking about China's rare earth issues for a long time now. One might be tempted to call their investment advisor to put a bit of money into companies making Sodium ion batteries.
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Complacency
Re:"Stranglehold" ? (Score:5, Interesting)
The issue is that rare earth elements are typically acquired as part of some other large mining operation. If you want the produce them affordably you need to be able to compile extracting them with something else. Everyone was hoping that they could just keep getting them cheap from China, instead of at much greater cost from elsewhere.
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The issue is that rare earth elements are typically acquired as part of some other large mining operation. If you want the produce them affordably you need to be able to compile extracting them with something else. Everyone was hoping that they could just keep getting them cheap from China, instead of at much greater cost from elsewhere.
Which is why I'm betting on Sodium-ion batteries.
Meanwhile, a whole lot of smartphone addicts are probably freaking out.
Re:"Stranglehold" ? (Score:4, Informative)
You’re calling this blackmail? It’s simply reciprocal. Shit in the pool of your trading partners and then act surprised when they get upset.
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Permissions for "breaking ground" on a processing facility to turn un-crushed rock into usable product are still waiting on an acceptable pollution control plan.
The main reason that China reached a (near) m
Look at that. (Score:5, Interesting)
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To be fair, I'm running out of northern hemisphere countries left to boycott.
In an act of war, the poutine-eating philistines to the north just banned Vegemite.
https://www.smh.com.au/politic... [smh.com.au]
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Those bloody cunts. Let's send them Rupert Murdoch as punishment! After all, it worked on the Yanks.
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To be fair, I'm running out of northern hemisphere countries left to boycott.
In an act of war, the poutine-eating philistines to the north just banned Vegemite.
https://www.smh.com.au/politic... [smh.com.au]
Utterly bizzarre. "Added B vitamins" is a bad thing? Was there a rationale? A lot of people benefit quite a lot from them, including people who for one reason or another don't process them correctly. And they are in enriched flour(enriched with B vitamins because processing removes the vitamins) , energy drinks and other foods.
So it appears the Canadian Politicians are as nutty as our own.
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The worst part is that the rest of the world has to suffer along with America. Not just the economic damage, or the new permits to export this stuff, but the inflation too. Sony has said that the PS5 will increase in price, both for the US and for Europe. We are being made to absorb some of the Trump tariffs, even though we don't have to pay them.
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Re: Look at that. (Score:4, Insightful)
Tell us you know nothing of the subject, without telling us you know nothing of the subject.
Ask yourself this question: where is the refining of rare earths conducted, for basically the entire world? Answer: China. Because it's spectacularly polluting and China doesn't give a fuck.
It doesn't matter where the ore is mined, if the refineries are all in China. And good luck "speeding up" building multi-billion dollar refining operations and getting environmental permitting for that in a matter of weeks.
Trump is a fucking idiot, and has no idea what he's doing. Other countries actually do know what the fuck they're doing, and moves like this show it. Pull your head out of your ass.
Long time (Score:5, Informative)
The Graph at the beginning of this article [theoregongroup.com] gives a good picture of rare earth mineral production around the world, including the impressive overproduction in recent years.
The problem is more than just mining the minerals (which the US does), it's also producing them into in usable magnet form [federalregister.gov], which is combining neodymium mostly with iron. With initiatives already underway, the US is expected to be able to reach 50% of its own magnet production by 2026.
Sources (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Long time (Score:4, Informative)
And there it is (Score:4, Interesting)
I was waiting for something like this to happen. I give it until next week when the orange goon will "graciously" roll back more tariffs and give more exemptions.
The world needs these exotic components to keep running at this point in history. Any long-term disruption will have a far reaching effect on a wide range of industries.
This is what happens when you make things up as you go along because you have no idea what you're doing.
Re:And there it is (Score:4, Insightful)
I was waiting for something like this to happen. I give it until next week
In the meantime the goal was achieved - Americans are talking about this issue (like here on Slashdot), politicians have been woken up to it again, and production in the USA can begin ramping back up.
Re:And there it is (Score:4, Insightful)
The goal was/is to make money via insider trading.
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https://archive.ph/0MNL4#selec... [archive.ph]
Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, Republican of Georgia, disclosed on Monday that she had purchased between tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of stock on April 8 and 9, the day before and the day of President Trump’s announcement that he was pausing a sweeping set of global tariffs, a pivot that sent the stock market soaring out of a sizable slump.
Ms. Greene bought between about $21,000 and $315,000 in stocks on those days. The day before Mr.
Re: And there it is (Score:4)
Who is going to go after the insiders? Any institution that has that power has already been gutted - and those remaining aren't going to risk their jobs to go after powerful people.
Re: And there it is (Score:4, Insightful)
How did "insiders" "trade" to "profit" from the market dip?
Are you really this dense? Let's work together and see if we can figure it out.
First, Trump tanks the market by putting intentionally stupid tariffs in place.
Second, they wait a few days for stocks to sink 10% or so - hoping for enough to make a bunch of money but not enough to really break things (see the bond market).
Finally, Trump insiders and rich buddies get told that the tariffs will be lifted at date and time X, so they can buy beforehand.
For fucks sake, Trump literally posted it on his shitty Twitter clone [truthsocial.com] a few hours beforehand, I guess to throw a bone to his "orange man god" rubes.
It's not like stock transaction aren't tracked, we should be able to find all these "insiders" shorting stocks before the tariffs drive the market down. Of course, we know who these people are right? What they bought? How they profited, etc, right?
Sure, but guess who is responsible for finding these people? The SEC. Who gutted the staff and authority of the SEC? Trump and Musk. And who is running the castrated SEC? Oh yeah, the inmates. And who is responsible for prosecuting them? The AG and judiciary. And who's running that? The same group of fucks.
Or are you just raging because "orange man bad"?
God, I love when Trumpers use this and think it's a witty jab. Like Big Lead saying "Just raging because 'lead in brain bad'" or Big Tobacco saying "Just raging because 'lung cancer bad'" and thought it was a real burn. Yes, the "orange man" is bad, and stating it like it's an absurdity doesn't actually invalidate it.
Trump really does has a lock on the bottom half of the IQ distribution.
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In the meantime the goal was achieved - Americans are talking about this issue
Americans have never stopped talking about manufacturing in America, so that's bullshit.
Americans are also now talking about trade imbalances without understanding what they mean, just like you, was that the goal?
and production in the USA can begin ramping back up.
The reason it left was because wealthy people in charge decided it should leave. No amount of average Americans talking about it moves the needle in any direction because the wealthy don't give two shits about what we think. In fact, they give not even one shit.
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Also this is just sortoff a fantasy playground for Americans, very telling in this poll that 80% of Americans say "America would be better off if more American's worked in manufacturing, however only 23% of those same Americans say they "would be better off if I worked in a factory" so everyone else should be turning the screws, but "not me, I like my high paying service job, that's for other folks"
Nostalgia for manufacturing will make the US poorer [ft.com]
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Production in the US won't ramp up to anything like the needed levels to prevent massive cost increases and shortages, and even that will take years.
The way to do this is ramp up your supply first, not screw every industry that relies on it and hope they survive somehow.
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That's another example of how China does it better. The government sets a goal to develop an industry, gets solidly behind it, and doesn't change its mind 2 years later when there is an election.
Re:And there it is (Score:4, Interesting)
Will China reverse these new export controls though? Even if Trump walks back, they may not do so themselves until the full 125% tariff is removed, or maybe not at all to prevent the US from getting into a better position and trying the same shit again.
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Re:And there it is (Score:5, Insightful)
I was waiting for something like this to happen. I give it until next week when the orange goon will "graciously" roll back more tariffs and give more exemptions.
The world needs these exotic components to keep running at this point in history. Any long-term disruption will have a far reaching effect on a wide range of industries.
This is what happens when you make things up as you go along because you have no idea what you're doing.
The problem is, the damage is done. The US is no longer a trusted trade partner, let alone a top level trusted one. Countries the world over are looking to other nations for trade.
For years China's growing influence in the Asia Pacific region has been a concern... so what did Trump do... Put tariffs on everyone which sent APAC nations straight into Chinas waiting arms... Well fucking done, the issue is now worse.
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Countries the world over are looking to other nations for trade.
That's the quiet part. Trump likes to talk about countries willing to negotiate. He even spoke about the EU willing to negotiate. Except the EU said they aren't negotiating or starting trade talks with the USA. On the other hand the trade war did make Ursula von der Leyen did speak with someone, Premier Li Qiang.
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I was waiting for something like this to happen. I give it until next week when the orange goon will "graciously" roll back more tariffs and give more exemptions.
The world needs these exotic components to keep running at this point in history. Any long-term disruption will have a far reaching effect on a wide range of industries.
This is what happens when you make things up as you go along because you have no idea what you're doing.
While I don't disagree with the stupid tariffs, don't be in panic mode. There are alternatives to Lithium-ion batteries. Sodium-ion is waiting in the wings, safer, doesn't use exotic elements. It doesn't have quite the same energy density, But everything won't fall apart if Pooh Bear and Cheeto are having trouble being nice.
Great, sobering discussion of rare earth issues (Score:4, Interesting)
Misha Glenny just did an excellent series covering rare earths. Link here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/s... [bbc.co.uk]
This is pretty bad news. However, Beijing's strategy seems unclear to me. They wanted to paint themselves in contradiction to the US, as a reliable trading partner for other countries. This really doesn't help their case. Trump has really made life shittier for everyone now. I guess there's going to be a scramble to use induction motors in EVs in the coming months and years.
Re:Great, sobering discussion of rare earth issues (Score:5, Informative)
As per the article, they are setting up a licensing system before resuming exports. I would guess that this licensing system will be intended to prevent them being sold on to the USA, with any instances of this being grounds for license revocation. I would not expect this to take very long to set up, but perhaps a slight delay is intended to focus minds and dissuade other Countries from allowing them to be sold on to the USA.
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That seems plausible. But will still emphasise that they are not a trading partner in whom Western countries can fully trust. In the UK, that's been emphasised pretty sharply in recent days with British Steel.
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Yeah but that's still not reliable. Reliable would have been announcing that, giving warning, implementation time then finally implementing it. Might not take long, but it's just reminded everyone very firmly that China too has control of crucial things and both can and will cut them off with no warning if they feel it's OK. We all kinda knew that, but assuming it wasn't the case was a good working assumption. Now it is not.
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Probably done this way to prevent hoarding before the licence comes in. A lot of companies tried to beat the tariffs by importing big stockpiles before they hit.
At this point Beijing is so far ahead of the US in terms of stability, they can afford to cash in a little bit of that reputation.
Re: Great, sobering discussion of rare earth issue (Score:2)
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"contradiction" you mean "contradistinction". There is no contraction to what China is doing except with promoting itself as free trader.
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This is pretty bad news. However, Beijing's strategy seems unclear to me.
They're reaching for anything they can use as leverage. Maybe they'll remove the export controls next week.
Or maybe it's only Trump who is that capricious.
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Most likely they're halting to put in legal barriers to stop exported materials ending up in the US. I'm sure if dementia Don chickened out (again) that suddenly the need for restrictions would also stop.
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Misha Glenny just did an excellent series covering rare earths. Link here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/s... [bbc.co.uk]
This is pretty bad news. However, Beijing's strategy seems unclear to me. They wanted to paint themselves in contradiction to the US, as a reliable trading partner for other countries. This really doesn't help their case. Trump has really made life shittier for everyone now. I guess there's going to be a scramble to use induction motors in EVs in the coming months and years.
I'll have a listen, don't have time at the moment. But much of the hand-wringing over this seems to be non-technicals who believe there is no other source of portable energy. We either have Li ion batteries, or the world goes back to the stone ages.
The delay is a power play? (Score:2)
So far, those export controls have translated to a halt across the board, cutting off the U.S. and other countries, according to the New York Times. That's because any exports of the minerals and magnets now require special licenses, but Beijing has yet to fully establish a system for issuing them, the report said.
I'm guessing the delay to "establish a system" is deliberate to remind the world of their advantage. China is not subtle in its threats to other countries that criticize it for any reason.
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That is one way of looking at it. The other is, it just reminded the world you can't depend on China. The world is relearning a lesson they should have learned in elementary school.
I am starting to believe that the human race can't be educated.
I wonder if the republicans realize that all the power that they give to the current administration will be passed onto the next which they may not control.
I thought that rare earths... (Score:3)
were what the Donald wanted to buy Greenland for.
Then He also wants to get some from Ukraine...
Employment (Score:2)
Re:Employment (Score:4, Funny)
Two people will be employed.
One to feed the guard dog, and one to make sure the guy who feeds the dog doesn't touch any of the robots.
Re: Employment (Score:2)
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Both will be H1Bs because it's too hard to find local American talent...
No, they don't (Score:5, Insightful)
"Beijing's export halt is notable because China has a stranglehold on global supplies of rare earths and magnets derived from them."
No, the only have a lock on very-low priced and mines with zero polution controls and safety systems.
Undercut (Score:2, Interesting)
This is just one of the global tactics companies like China have done to undercut the USA and drive production out of our country. As a capitalistic economy, things that are not profitable to produce in the USA cause production to go out of business due to competition. China flooded the globe with cheap rare-earths, and mining in the USA ceased.
The same thing happened with oil several years ago, when fracking in the USA resulted in huge numbers of small companies springing up and making money off oil again.
Re: Undercut (Score:2)
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Exactly, security demands we produce these things domestically. Reality says we will never be able to do it as cheaply as others are able.
The case here isn't economics it is security. The problem is economics and the only answers are some kind of protectionist strategy. Everyone knows advanced microcomputer technology and communications equipment are necessary parts of the national security picture. It is at least widely suspected that rare earths are needed to make electrification of transportation worka
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Anyone can disagree with Trump's approach, complaints are easy coming up with real alternatives is hard.
CHIPS Act, Inflation Reduction Act.
The former was a targeted bill around a specific sector with the goal to get domestic production online, and it worked/is working.
The latter put aside hundreds of millions for rare earth production facilities in the US, a lot built around magnetics for motors including a grant for rare-earth-free magnet production. We can't say these aren't alternatives simply because Republicans refuse to do this type of legislation because of their ideology. Were those bills perfect? Fa
And when Trump blinks once again... (Score:5, Informative)
... grown men with tears in their eyes will salute and thank him for wiping trillions from the market, annihilating their 401Ks and sending the US economy into something worse than a recession.
He is still doing insane damage (Score:3, Insightful)
And then there's the uncertainty of having a senile madman. The mark
Re:And when Trump blinks once again... (Score:5, Informative)
Re: And when Trump blinks once again... (Score:3)
Rare earth mining limits in USA self imposed (Score:5, Informative)
The USA used to produce all manner of rare earth metals until there were laws limiting the sale and disposal of thorium. Ore in the USA that is rich in rare earth metals tends to be also rich in thorium. This wasn't a big problem some time ago as thorium had a number of uses. Thorium glows a bright white when heated so it was used in gas lantern mantles, and filaments for light bulbs. Thorium apparently helps in making good lenses. There's steel alloys with thorium that are useful for welding and corrosion resistance. There's probably more but that list should get the point across.
The sale of thorium was then restricted when there was concern over the radioactivity. This is quite silly for a number of reasons. Laws on disposal of "radioactive materials" meant the mining tails containing "too much" thorium had to be hauled off to a radioactive waste disposal site, at considerable expense. With few places to sell the thorium, and it costing money to bury it in one hole versus another, that made all kinds of mines unable to make money selling rare earth metals.
We can get these mines open again fairly quickly with a few changes to laws that never made sense in the first place.
A bonus on having thorium rich mining tails is that is a source of fuel should we decide thorium fission reactors are a good idea. It is a good idea but that has get to the powers that be in Congress, DOE, EPA, White House, a few state capitols, and a few other places I'm likely missing.
The USA is not lacking in rare earth metals. The issues is a matter of silly laws making mining of these metals unprofitable. Being unable to get the metals from China is not likely enough to change the costs enough to make it profitable. It likely just means we import from Australia, Brazil, India, or something. We need the laws changed. I suspect it might happen now, but there's going to be resistance on this from a number of places and it might be enough to keep it from happening, at least until things get far worse for us.
Neodymium not on the list/ (Score:3)
Re: Neodymium not on the list/ (Score:3)
Brilliant! (Score:2)
I HAVE AN IDEA! Let's piss off the entire world simultaneously so nobody is on our side. That should work, right?
Just a reminder (Score:4, Insightful)
Still if a handful of Republicans in the house are forced to stop Trump then all this bullshit stops in the economy will at least stabilize enough that we might make it to the midterms.
Of course there's still a looming threat of Elon musk's money. He has threatened to challenge Republicans in the primary election using his fat stacks of cash. Basically one man now controls more then half up national politics. But it's okay. He's the star of Iron Man 2 so he's clearly a genius.
Re: (Score:3)
And we saw just how much Musk's money meant in Wisconsin, didn't we?
I'm pretty sure the guy who lost would have done better if Musk stayed the fuck away from Wisconsin altogether. All the political donations in the world don't matter if you're running the "I'm with the idiot burning it all down" campaign.
As absurd as it sounds (Score:2)
I would not be surprised if Trump reaches out to Russia for these materials in exchange for lowering sanctions.
Re: (Score:2)
I'd be surprised if he doesn't, but it may take a while before it happens. Right now he's pretending he's angry about Ukraine negotiations.