Proposed ban by China of rare-earth metal exports would affect hybrid cars, CFLs

...and so it begins: www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iZdlSbDK9DfazWNkzMTpD-xJd_Jg

How feasible is it, technically, to recycle the small amounts of these elements in consumer devices such as phones and laptops? Papers suggest that big magnets from motors are not too difficult to recycle (albeit energy intensively)but are we not seeing a one-way flow of REEs from China (or wherever) to landfills in the west? Eventually this will dry up as will other sources when economics make them exploitable.

So? The US holds the world's 2nd largest REE reserves. Maybe the largest due the over-mining in China.

Surely higher taxes, higher energy costs and more regulation are the answer. After all, environmentalists drove the Mountain Pass mine out of business once, surely a little effort and a few lawsuits can drive it under once again.

Ah, yes, lets bicker.

Yes, many of you are completely right, China has plans to dominate, is very aggressive in this plans, is violating many western standards (IP, pollution, workers rights, etc.), unfair subventions with currency rates, etc. etc. BUT ! Developed countries like EU, USA and Japan have from now on free chance to change behaviour and stop crying. Some suggestions -300% customs on Chinese products until it will prove democracy, workers rights, pollution standards, fair workers price and fair currency level -destroy WTO and its stupid mantra of free market until all countries will have at least similar conditions as above for China -protect poor and confused Africa against China silent invasion, use military force if needed -stop importing engineers from undeveloped countries, final consequence is that knowledge will migrate out (India, China,..), local engineers are unemployed and nobody is interesting to study engineering anymore -keep vital industries (including research, agriculture, mining, ...) alive in home lands with many possible protective measures -reduce big debts of governments (like USA-China) I believe in free market but only if there are comparable standards in every country. Unbalanced market produces unstability in many segments, even wars (remember war in Africa for tantalium just because of demand for capacitors for motherboards...). So don't cry about China, but let's force our governments to act more responsible in longer term, not only for 4 years till another elections. Howgh !

Everybody should support Chinese government?s effort to limit the production of rare-earth metals and restrict the exports because the manufacturing process destroys the environments severely. China?s decision will help to protect the earth. Japan and EU are the leaders in promoting environmental protection. They should not change their stances when facing an issue potentially hurting their own economic interest. The Chinese is just learning from US, Japan and European countries to put its own interest first. It is completely fair to use its own nature resources to meet the needs of its fast growing economy. Fortunately, China is not the only country having the rare-earth metals deposits. US, EU and Japan should find their own resources to produce the needed rare-earth metals, and use them in cars, electronics and etc. Don?t rely on others providing low-cost materials.

. . and I thought all these minerals wer wot the Chinese ripped off from Africa. Ah ! now I see it, hypocracy at it's worst and badly camouflaged protectionism to boot. And don't forget the so-called internal consumption is for their own factories . . to make components for their exporters ! Seems like good foot shooting practice . . their own ofcourse.

Continuation from above - Oh, just forgot to mention a few items: Their persecution of Tibetans. Their disproportionately large male population will be looking for an outlet for their aggressions (a-la male only babies preferred thank you). Now that they make trucks, moving an army to attack their neighbors will be easy. Their banking system will eventually destabilize from foreign currency and foreign investment losses as they destabilize the world. Trying the basket of foreign currencies to protect themselves will be like watching a drowning man thrashing about - since their predatory practices will impact all countries. Their are already border disputes with India. Well, enough said.

China is putting a major portion of the world, particularly other third-world countries, out of business through artificially under-pricing it's currency, contrary to W.T.O. principles. The underpricing impacts mining rare earths along with other types of business. Until this practice is stopped, the cascade of failed world businesses and bankrupted governments and economies will continue. Rare Earths are just one example of what is happening. The Chinese are extremely aggressive in stealing and forcing disclosure of intellectual property (and military secrets). Their renowned abuse of their own people is minor compared with their coming abuse of foreign populations. However, what they will reap in the end is a whirlwind of ill-will, and the foreign currencies that they worked so hard to accumulate will plunge in value, wiping out the savings of their own people and country. As a monkey places it's hand in the narrow-necked Gourd to grab at food, and then can't let go even though it's trapped by it's own greed, so will the Chinese find themselves in a similar trap - the have already lost an incredibly large fortune through the decline of their dollar investments and the reduction of US (and world) interest rates on their stolen savings. When China does run out of resources it will look to the closest resource-rich targets to invade (it's government has little time for niceties such as democracy, the rule-of-law (a-la lack of separation between legal process and government), equal rights (a-la harvesting prisoner organs), freedom of speech (a-la internet controls), freedom of religion (al-la-persecution of Christians etc.), and fairness and respect and care for one's neighbor. So the Arab countries and the Russians and the Indians and Koreans better beware the Chinese threat! I remember cringing when Russia destroyed it's battle tanks at the end of the cold-war. So China, Go Ahead! Your evil deeds may destroy us, but they will most certainly destroy you!

San Fung: Yes , there are many other ways to "hang" China and NO , communism will never win - EVER!!! Citing Lenin is at least tasteless.It is true that some greedy capitalists are causing a lot of trouble,but this too shall pass.

Je rigole ! C'est la réponse du berger à la bergère. Garder pour soi ses ressources stratégiques n'est le monopole de personne. Les US n'ont-il pas augmenté les droits de douane sur les pneus chinois ? Maintenant que les capitalistes ont mis aux chinois, le pied à l'étrier, cela se retourne contre eux. Comme l'a dit Lénine: les capitalistes sont prêt à vous vendre la corde qui les pendra.

Now maybe the US government should reconsider China's occupation of Tibet where these minerals are actually being mined. China is equally vulnerable in terms of its need to import vast quantities of food for its people as there is relatively little arable in China on a per capita basis. Stop allowing US rice and wheat to be exported to China and the government will cave in quickly.

It has been quite interesting thing, how we allowed communist country take over almost a whole world economy and throw some of strong and rich countries on their knees.GREED has to be stopped. Few month embargo on China and 50% of import tax(just like Great Britain does) can do miracles.As for scientific part of a huge discussion - we have a bunch of Rare-earth metals and there are other countries that can supply them.Just re-open old mines, because mining was "not economical".Now it will be ....and by the way to stop China , just do not supply ANY COPPER to them.Within few weeks they will give us all we need.It is THAT SIMPLE. Thank you Margery for a nice article.Greetings to all.

China is now doing what the USA has been doing since WW2....World market control.....HA HA HA ....China will crush the USA and will become the number One world power within 5 years....all because we shop at Wallmart and Dollarama....stupid Kapitalists.....

Tweet, Molymine closed operations because of cheaper supplies overseas. The cheaper supplies exist because of governmental intervention on behalf of the host country. Usually that would be the end of the argument. However, there is this to consider. The consumers of the products are allowed to purchase from the cheaper supplier despite a known artifical depression in the price. In the domestic free market system with proper regulations, this would be considered a monoplistic tactic that is wholly against the law. However, since deregulation, there is no longer a law to protect companies such as Molymine from being forced out of the market. Molymine did not suffer from environmental or labor mandates. It suffered from a deregulated system that allowed for a non-level playing field. Point #3 from the mildy angry scientist is key. Personnally ranting, I was lead to belive that the whole point of our government was to provide a fair and balanced system so that anyone can make it. It didn't matter who made it, so long as everyone had a fair shot at doing so. Unfortunatly, I don't know what to expect from our government today.

No leader will be stupid enough to launch a war against a huge country such as China (or Russia, or Iran). Don't talk about military war here. Very few will pay more just because it is labeled as "made in USA". There are very few of such items in this global economy. Accept that the rest of the world is getting better off. If you have not been in these countries, especially China, go there to learn how well the people are living. Many westerners settle there.

Most of these points have been made in separate posts but let me try to summarize them. 1. Rare earth is an out of date term for a class of materials (see wikipedia for Lanthanoid). They are not rare, but hundreds of years ago nearly impossible to isolate. There is virtually unlimited supplies in terms of our ability to use in the next few hundred years. 2. If the rest of the world consumed as much materials per person as does the US, we'd all choke in the pollution from the mining, production and disposal. 3. The reasons China dominates these materials is with government subsidies, they allowed toxic separation and production methods that would be prohibitively expensive to engineer around with cleaner and safer methods in the US, Japan and Europe. 4. Raising the price will only allow others to get back into the game. This is a short term profiteering issue, not of any lasting scientific, production or life threatening nature. 5. Creating a scare allows speculators to cash in. This is all noise.

Arthur Tse said it right. China has a responsibility to maintain the quality of life of her own people! Why doesn't the U.S. consume her own oil, coal, natural gas, uranium and minerals? Because the US population are gullible fools educated by Disney and con-men getting rich off of frauds like "global warming" al gore! The self-sevring and selfish american likes to feel good about themseves by claiming they are "saving the world" by forcing other nations to produce energy products that americans are unwilling to produce. Good luck America; this is only the beginning. Learn to open up your resources and start producing your own energy and mineral needs before complaining about what other countries are doing that is smarter, more realistic and more supporting of their citizens than you will ever be!

Sonet, I agree with you about China helping bailing us out, but your conceptions about the US are incorrect. The US has exeeded the Kyoto protocols and has surpassed all other countries in reduction of pollution by about 8%. The US is defending itself against terrorist, not having Wars for oil. The US has not seized any oil wells or companies during this conflict. If so, don't you think the price of oil would have fallen significantly? The oil money from Iraqi oil wells goes directly to Iraqi citizens.

ESPECIALLY TO CEDUP, you are full of crap. I think all these people complaining of the chinese are bull shits and hypocrtites. If it is not the chinese, i think the usa has gone bust already. IF it is not the wall street, do you think we are in this recession. Thanks to you guys. Just keep spending while the rest of the world is saving. Look who is ignoring the kyotol protocol all these while. Look who has been sucking up the resources of the world all these while. ANd look who is having wars and taking over the oil wells all these years. Hope that you guys will reflect that.

Why the US limited the sales of hi-tech product to China? Why the west can waste the energy for the past 100 years and complain the Chinese who only consume much less then half of the west do per capita wise? Why don't the US not consume their deposit of oil and other minerals but import from the others? The Chinese are so stupid just export these finite resources so cheaply before. Look at what the Japanese has stock up these materials and you will find the answer. Just do not blame everthing on the Chinese. The price of food goes up because the Chinese drink milk now-- WHAT KINDS OF LOGIC IS THAT?

China is doing no more than OPEC has done to stave off depletion of their valuable natural resorces. After all they have over 1 Billion people to support, and the greedy, self serving world will have to come second. The US owes a lot of money to China, and has little room to make demands. The first thing we (US) need to do is conserve! There are alternatives to these products available, or alternative methods to solutions. I use rare Earth magnets in motors I use, but they are not the only way to make the motor run, just convenient, and cheaper. We as a nation need to work together and become a cohesive force for change. Otherwise we suffer the will of other nations. We need to wake up our legislators, and bring focus to the unused strength of American ingenuity, and wake up our families and neighbors to the danger of unchecked consumption. We represent 5% of the global population and over 25% of global energy consumption with little regard of our impact on global society. It's to own up, and make a difference! Will you look in the mirror and challenge the face you see to make the first step?

China's stranglehold is just beginning. Expect a lot of this sort of thing in the coming years.Then we will see who the true source of evil is in this world (One hint, it isn't us!)

These so called rare earths are not that rare as in scarcity, some of them are as common or more abandon then lead. The problem is our capitalistic attitute to buy from the cheapest source. The west would take the easy way out by just putting the blame squarely China. On one hand they are asking China to increase their internal consumption BUT on the other they are also not happy when their internal demand has also gone up so much that it causes shortages that affects them.

Everyone needs to learn to consume less, China and US included.

"With appropriate federal assistance for research, development and capital costs..." If they are anticipating operation as a private for-profit company, then "appropriate federal assistance" is a smile, a handshake and a hearty "Go for it!" accompanied by zero dollars and no cents.