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China to Globe: “No More Rare Earth”
Bloomberg
reports that China is cutting back 72% of its exports of Rare Earth
metals. China has said that environmental issues are the reason for the
cutbacks.
72% drop in availability of any commodity is important. RE’s are
important. I am no expert in this but I believe that RE metals are
needed in most things we make and consume. From cars to cell phones.
Some more informed comments on the importance of RE would be most
welcome.
Japan and the US are already protesting the ban. The rest of the world’s
manufacturing base will soon follow. This could become an interesting
row.
And all those folks were saying that China would be the world’s economic growth engine. Not.
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Forgot .. thanks Bruce , Good post .
Iron Hills Colorado deposit - USGS report - TCK -Teck Resources Ltd owns 100% share - 17% sold to China
http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2009/1005/downloads/OF09-1005.pdf
When discussing America's potential to rebuild its economic base we have to understand that that there are 2 essential ingredients to achieve that: people and capital, and I would say both are very scarce. Printing won't substitute real capital creation, hoping on external investments at this point in time is unrealistic. If you are sharp observer of what's going around you'll see that engineers and skillful manufacturing workforce simply disappeared after 30 or 20 years of deindustrialization. You may find financial engineers, actors, singers, lawyers, construction specialists, dentists, doctors and many small business people who know how to move around in services area but not miners, machinists, mechanical designers, machine operators and so on. I'm not saying that they are non-existent but scarce. You'll have to educate new generations and pay them more. Maybe at some point America will wake up and see that it's not possible to survive producing games, films, genetically altered food and military hardware (with Asian suppliers).
Has anybody an idea how much RE is already around in electronics?
That stuff could be recycled and the RE extracted again.
If I am not mistaken, Africa has ample supplies, issue is, China is taking over Africa.
I think I read somewhere that container ships full of it are shipped overseas...Nigeria?...where piles of it are gone through for RE's.
Of note...hard drives & any electronic memory are also recovered and sold to the highest bidders on the black market. Something to be aware of when chunking an old computer or crackberry.
Destroy it's memory of your life before discarding ;-)
China has RE[neodymium] essential for production of supermagnets utilized in new highly efficient motors in hybrid cars and other energy savings products. It would be ironic to hold back this RE since the US [Pres. Nixon]sold the supermagnet technology to China as part of the aggrement to open trade between China and US. As I recall the Chinese Premier's son was involved. Recently Pres. Obama announced the US would be starting a program to produce these RE in US. The point is these strategic materials as well as other technologies are top priorities and do get involved in politics at the highest levels. I assume thats why we have the NSC, CIA,etc.,etc.
Like many other areas, the U.S. was the leader until China industrialized to the point that they could undercut us.
They flooded the U.S. and world market with heavy metals on the cheap, making running the U.S. mines and companies unprofitable.
The U.S. led up until 1984 judging from the graph. China has slave labor and no environmental laws, and we seem to be happy to let them put our companies and jobs in the scrap yard.
Our mines and the heavy metals are still there, but gearing them up to produce in a time of war would be problematic.
Beware China.
http://www.resourceinvestor.com/News/2009/8/Pages/Heavy-rare-earth-elements-and-the-future-of-hightech-mfg-in-the-US.aspx
Plenty HERE, just no major, numerous miners, developers,YET.
rare earths and some fireworks are, in fact, the only thing china produces that we may need or want. Everything else is a product of globalist theory and its love of slave wage labor
No shock here.
Well, the good news is now we can recycle all those idiotic windmills and solar panels that produce little or no electricity to retrieve the RE's.
I hope China will stop selling us anything (and conversely that we will stop buying anything from them). We need to get Americans back to work, even if the "stuff" isn't as cheap.
Comparative advantage does not mean you have to send all your jobs overseas. Sure, Siberia should be importing its bananas and wine (rather than growing them in hot houses). However, sending all manufacturing jobs to the country closest to slave labor is not what Adam Smith was talking about (in my opinion).
No society should try to produce everything, but, every society has to balance the benefits of buying from the low bidder and having huge numbers of unemployed and unemployable people.
Remember, half the population has an IQ less than 100 (by definition). We need low skill (or no skill) jobs for about a 75 million people in the US. Since our education system has been destroyed by teachers unions and political correctness, this problem is getting more acute, not less.
Why not tell the Chinese we won't buy any more electronics from them (we'll just fix what we have) since discarded electronic items are a toxic waste problem. Think how many green jobs that would create repairing DVD's, TV's etc. Not to mention the second hand shops!
Just a thought!
OT: Have you heard about the Spanish windmill and solar companies that are going under now the idiots (meaning govts) can't afford to pay their greenie partners in crime 10 times market rates for electricity.
Haven't heard the Obamanut talking about how Spain is the leader in dumb (I mean "green") power lately. Hopefully GE will go under as a result of their green stupidity unless the nuclear business saves them (see recent WSJ article on this topic).
China only cares about China. None of this MSM "oh, the poor starving children in Pakistan" bullcrap there.
Spiegel talks about how Germany is fed up with China's unrelenting demands for un-recompensated access to German technology.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,713478,00.htmlBy the time China is finished screwing the rest of the planet, they will all be saying how sensitive the US had been while raping them earlier.
I have little doubt but that all the gold I have horded will end up in China.
So, stockpiling rather than disposing of used hard drives is a good thing? I do it in part because I do so much work in the MOFN, but lately have been thinking "what ifs" on the looooooong supply chain and currency shenanigans.
You know, this could have a real deleterious effect on hardware life-cycles.
Just my opinion.
You do right by stockpiling those HDs
I see a broader political goal for China. With all of the tech manufacturing in Asia (Japan, Taiwan, S Korea, developing in SE Asia), this is an economic move against US military influence among those same countries. In other words, China wants the ASEAN countries + Japan and S Korea in their sphere of influence and away from the US. By controlling this needed resource, they force the hands of these countries. The US has few means to counteract this move. And it follows, somewhat, the PLA demand that China sell USTs in response to the military games in the S China Sea and Sea Of Japan this summer involving US (especially the carrier George Washington), S Korea and Vietnam.
hmm, China restricting exports of RE, Russia stopping exports of grain, SE Asia countries restricting/blocking exports of rice/grains in the past...
The quiet beginnings of resource wars?
Maybe the US should restrict exporting food stuffs for a while...we used to maintain reserves of surplus foodstuffs for hard times...remember govt cheese? As someone who has been truely hungry in the past, a wonderbread and govtcheez sandwich is better than nothing...
Other countries seem to be able to put their national concerns to the front and act on them, maybe, possibly, the US could as well....oh, wait...sorry, my bad...
But but... This would all defy WTO rules, you know, the ones that the US put in pace to sucker everyone else into providing THEIR labor and resources (into our financial black hole?).
US food production is largely a product of massive amounts of imported energy. Check, and Mate!
This is a perfect illustration as to why there will be no NWO. The reversion has been established, and there's nothing that anyone can do about it- Mother Nature is now fully in charge (physical limitations are now exerting themselves- driven by declining energy reserves).
yup...
I have got to say it, can't resist....
Gardens and local food production...bitchez!
:)
"This is a perfect illustration as to why there will be no NWO"
Thats what Ive been saying about the IMF's wet dreams about sdr's...
BTW, the economic development of Peru is going to go hyperbolic if China effectively goes through with this trade restriction.
Peru will be able to piggyback on what is effectively a REM cartel, and demand that REM value added REM manufacture facilities be located in Peru, paying Peruvian union labor wages.
And unlike China, the location of the Peruvian REM deposits are in the middle of a barren wasteland... the area has had no economic value and has been considered god-forsaken going as far back as the earliest known settlements on the north shore of Lake Titicaca several thousand years ago.
In summation, Peru Putas!
litoralkey! Or anyone!
Pray tell me more about Rare Earths in Peru! I know the country reasonably well, and I never heard anything about Rare Earths there.
I will start Googling that as well.
You summed it nicely: Peru Putas!
Or would that be: Peru Putaz!
Who gives a shit. It doesn't matter anymore. The fucking world as we know it is coming to an end.
All it'll take is one large Natural EMP, like the next forecasted peak in the Solar Cycle and Whammo (not as in toys) as all's we're gonna have left is our dicks to play with for a long, long time.
No ATM, no computers, not bar code scanners, no cash registers, no credit card processing, no radio or TV or Internet, no Netflix, Jersey Shore or National Geographic "Mass Murders of the Amazon Culled by US Special Forces" series, no gas station pumps, no bottled water, McDonalds or Krispy Kreme donuts, no water as the pumps don't work, sewer outages and electrical failures, food goes bad, disease breaks out in epidemic Biblical proportions and all they's got to give people for shots is expired H1N1A1 what the fuck ever tainted flu vaccine, grass goes uncut, the creek rises, my wife still won't quit her bitching, a national emergency is declared by the president to an empty room and nobody shows up to my fucking birthday party and you guys are worried about rare earth minerals.
God, I feel better already.
We all really need to get a fucking grip.
A Faraday Cage in every pot!
Thanks for that dose of reality! :-)
That is actually an ugly chart.
This is yet another an example of yet-another-failure of the advice given by the Chicago School of Business and Ivy League Economists. That is, the idiots who were promoting the idea of globalization and outsourcing everything. And the same ones who failed to predict the Crash of 2008, as well as our current economic mess.
The trouble with outsourcing everything means you are at the mercy of other governments for those resources. D'oh!
We can ramp up production of RE's, because we shut down our mining operations in our haste to ship everything off to China. But it's going to take time, and screw up our production here.
I really have to wonder though, how much damage mainstream economic thought has to do before it's recognized as intellectually bankrupt and fatally flawed? It seems like the only economist who has a clue is Steve Keene and his camp.
"I really have to wonder though, how much damage mainstream economic thought has to do before it's recognized as intellectually bankrupt and fatally flawed?"
I think we're there or on the cusp of it.
Everyone, in the real world, is looking around at each other saying who the f^%$ are these guys? You can't spend yourself out of debt!
It's happening...slower than we want...but it's happening.
I agree. The problem is that we never learn anything from these disasters. The same fools who brought us the Great Depression have also brought us this current mess.
And you can bet money that they will not learn a single thing. How many Economists have come out and said "Opps - I was wrong" about missing the biggest event of their careers? Not a single one that I know of. And it's only by getting to that point can one take the next step, of determining why.
"And you can bet money that they will not learn a single thing. How many Economists have come out and said "Opps - I was wrong" about missing the biggest event of their careers? Not a single one that I know of. And it's only by getting to that point can one take the next step, of determining why."
Conspiracy theories are hard to prove. They are even harder to keep secret with the sheer volume of people who would know "the truth".
I think vested common interests are more probable.
Jefferson & Jackson knew certain banking interests were aligned. All kings past and present know the same. Most mainstream economists appear to be out of the loop scratching their collective heads ;-)
The bankers self interest is profit, which is less profitable without fractional reserve lending backstopped by the Fed, themselves basically, and permitted by Congress through regulation. Sitting politicians want only good news & to hand out goodies for re-election, self interest. The vaporous entity known as the Fed, a creation of politicians, has the job of providing an endless supply of "juice", if needed, for both.
The politician can spend what is not there to spend from taxation, knowing the Fed has their back. The bankers who own the Fed are assured of an ever increasing supply of "juice" for compounding of whole interest after only really committing a fraction.
The strategy is of course unworkable because even in flush times the politician, consumed with self interest, hands out goodies instead of reducing the debt incurred over the rough patches. The banker wishes to be made whole, not on the 10% in real capital he commited to a failed investment, but the entire loss.
The conspiracy, in my opinon, if there is one, is that the economist, the banker and the politician all went through the same education system that taught these monetary theories. All the common interests aligned right there, on campus.
Well, that got longer than I expected...LOL...one man's opinion.
The old saying "Never attribute to malice what can be attributed to stupidity" is applicable here. In order for there to be a conspiracy to pull this off, the parties need to have some sort of clue beforehand.
I don't know if you've ever studied much in the way of economic thinking, but it is just shockingly bad. Extremely primitive at best. These folks have difficulty using first year college math, and most don't. It's the exception when they do. As for using the scientific method, well, that would advance the field by about 200 years. That's just how bad the teaching and "research" is. And I'm trying hard to be polite here.
Now they might luck into something, but it would have to be by accident. There's just no way mainstream economists are that intelligent.
"I don't know if you've ever studied much in the way of economic thinking, but it is just shockingly bad."
The experience is not unlike the result of the input is it? ;-)
If one went into most colleges to study economics by going into debt (future labor) in order to do it, the debt is still there when they emerge. If one paid money (their past labor) up front the result of the experience is a loss of it.
All for a framed piece of paper.
There are exceptions to the rule of course, George Mason University for example, but it doesn't carry the clique factor which has ruined the economy up to this point. When you see Harvard, PHD, run for your life holding tightly to your wallet...LOL.
The PENTAGON likes rare earths. They are also getting back into the business of stockpiling. Who says the Chinese are the only ones who can stockpile? If the Chinese want to lock down exports, our own answer to the People's Liberation Army will happily procure their own, I would be willing to bet.
http://www.defensenews.com/story.php?i=4320280
Pretty hard to stockpile if the supply spigot is being turned off by China !!
The United States imports 100 percent of the rare earths it needs, according to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).
For the Pentagon, "rare earths are simply indispensable," said Mark Smith, Molycorp CEO. "While rare earths are a small part of these weapon systems, they absolutely have to be there - and we're 100 percent reliant on China right now to get them."
China now controls 98 percent of the world's so-called rare earth oxides that are needed to produce sophisticated commercial and military components, such as electronics, lasers, optics, surveillance and communications systems, magnets and batteries.
"DoD needs to do something to get that [Mountain Pass] mine back into production" Lifton said, "because the military needs those metals."
Lots of "rare earth elements" in:
High efficiency batteries.
High coercive force magnetics (think electric vehicles)
since most of the electronics which use RE's are made in this part of the world, little is changed, except China wants to control the manufacturing, like always. Nothing new here people, keep moving.
Wiki gives a list.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rare_earth_element
the ones with magnetic properties are interesting.
for you traders, check the price chart on these puppies.
I didn't know Rare Earth was Chinese, or even still toured.
I just want to celebrate and I'm losing you are still awesome.
Fuck China, as long as they can still be Torrented.
Spooky but true.
Rare Earth is just finishing up a tour! No note of visits to China though.
The environment reason is the most logical one. I have a collegue who was a plant manager in China. All he ever talkes about is about their ruined invironment and the fact they are killing themselves.
The largest threath for them is water.
Plain old simple ... water.
And the region where almost all their water comes from happens to be the same region where India, Loas, Vietnam, Cambodja, Thaitland all directly and indirectly get theirs. The Hymalaya.
Last year I could see with my own eyes how for example they where building a dam in Jinghong and that dam is blokking the Mekhong river. Water levels are already down 2 meters and still dropping. That will kill Laos, Vietnam, Thailand and Vietnam directly and indirectly.
Also the presence of the Chinese in the region is pretty alarming, they buy up land and businesses like there is no tomorow. And the local just waiste the proceeds on way to expensive cars. I don't think I've even seen so many Hummers on 1 city.
In the Hymalaya they are also damming up glacier rivers and redirecting them to the inland of china. And also there the Ganges is dropping every year. And whatever they say, India is still a agricultural country.
Blockading "rare earth elements".
Does anyone else sense a parallell to the WW2 constriction of oil flowing towards Japan?
That's an interesting comment but I don't think it's nearly the same. Japan had NO domestic energy resources and cutting off oil instantly crippled them. Cutting off raw RE metals is a major nuisance but it's not like it means immediate death and starvation for the US or anyone else. I don't dismiss your comment, but I do think this is more like Smoot-Hawley than like US-Japan in 1941.
Smoot-Hawley! Now there is a blast from the past that sounds more interesting by the day. Independent Contractor
Maybe it is just a commercial jerk on the chain.
http://www.metal-pages.com/metalprices/lanthanum/
It also is a definite 'come to me' invitation.
Carriers must be about obsolete against a modern technological adversary, with short range accurate ballistics, hypersonic cruises, etc.
Not really.
Turning one way or the other a few degrees negates ballistic/hypersonic weapons entirely. Not only is a carrier smaller than a typical ICBM target, it's also moving in ways you can't predict. You can't have something guide itself when it is completely cut off from the outside world.
The main threat to the carriers are more conventional missiles, and those are of limited range, compared to those other weapons.
That, and nukes... you can just nuke them.
The US has had the technology for maneuvering reentry vehicles since the early 1980's. With everything Klinton handed the Chinese or willy-nilly disregarded as they stole in daylight, it's quite likely they have the same technology.
And a lot of the cruise missiles are nuclear armed too. Whatever you may want to believe of US naval anti-missile defenses, you send enough supersonic cruise missiles at a carrier group, one or two will get through, and that's all it's going to take.
terminal guidance.
"you can't have something guide itself" hmmmm.
Of course not. We still launch 1960's technology.
No one started the comments with "Rare earth, bitchez!"? Amazing.
I have a couple of songs from the group Rare Earth on my iPhone. It's an iPhone 3G - that's so yesterday, I know.
I would not be offended if anybody flagged this post as junk.
I just want to celebrate your 5th junk
Without RE the technology would go back to the early 1950's and stay there, on a good note without RE the USA can build no smart bombs etc.