Rare Earth Metals Monopoly

Joeslogic · Feb 8, 2011

I started paying attention to this after reading some investment news a few years back where they were predicting big gains in stock values for companies in the rare earth business.

I saw another article and am posting it here. This is pretty serious for many reasons. From a tactical perspective especially since a lot of really high tech military technology depends on these elements. One reason it is not profitable to mine these here is the value of the Dollar. Also there are the environmental wackos to contend with.

China creates rare earth strategic reserves
Feb 8 03:46 AM US/Eastern

China is building up strategic reserves of rare earth metals in a move that could give it better control over the resource so indispensable to high tech products, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Storage facilities have been built in recent months in the northern region of Inner Mongolia with the capacity to hold more than the 39,813 tonnes of the metals China exported last year, the paper said.

But details of the strategic reserves have not been made public, it added on Monday.

China controls about 95 percent of the global trade for the 17 minerals that collectively make up the rare earth metals market.

The metals, prized for their special chemical or electromagnetic properties, are used in making mobile phones, batteries for hybrid cars, wind turbines, flat-screen televisions and other high tech products.

According to a report issued by the US Geological Survey in November, about 36 percent of the world's reserves of the metals are in China.

With the prices of rare earth metals rising on average by about 130 percent last year, mining companies in countries such as Australia have stepped up efforts to extract the minerals.

But according to the Wall Street Journal, a new mine could take a decade to develop, so the processing of rare earth elements will remain concentrated in China for years.

Last month, China brought 11 rare earth mines under state control as Beijing consolidated the industry -- a move analysts said could drive up prices of the elements.

In December, China also tightened control over the metals by slashing quotas for overseas shipments by some 35 percent for the first half of 2011, as well as hiking export taxes.

An association regrouping China's top 90 companies dealing in the extraction and processing of rare earth will also be formed and begin operating by May, a report in the Huaxia Times said late last month.
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Lomotil · Feb 9, 2011

We're all witnesses to the next stage in history...

Joeslogic · Feb 9, 2011

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rare_earth_element

http://www.cnbc.com/id/40027130/How_Are_Rare_Earth_Elements_Used?slide=1

*Great pictures here BTW*

Rare Earth Element Applications

Rare earth elements have drawn worldwide attention in recent months, with uncertainty from the worldâ€™s largest producer, China, making investors uneasy about products and industries that require these substances.

Rare earth elements are a collection of seventeen members of the periodic table, as defined by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry, but the name is somewhat misleading.

Composed mostly of members of the Periodic tableâ€™s lanthanide series, rare earths are similar in abundance as more familiar elements such as copper, nickel or zinc, while even the least abundant naturally occurring rare earths are 200 times more common than gold.

However, rare earth elements are only found in commercially viable amounts in several areas of the world. This situation has been compounded by Chinese production that has undercut costs of production in the US, by way of lower labor costs and less stringent environmental regulation. Once self-sufficient in rare earth production, sites in the US such as the Mountain Pass Mine in Californiaâ€™s Mojave Desert operates far below capacity, according to the USGS, for these environmental and economic concerns.

With uncertainty in the global rare earth markets, it pays to know what the rare earth elements are, and what they do. Click ahead for an element-by-element breakdown of the rare earth elements and how they are used in todayâ€™s economy.

By Paul Toscano
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Scandium

Although chemists technically differentiate Scandium from the other rare earth metals, this element is present in most rare earth or uranium deposits and is only found in a handful of mines worldwide.

Scandium is a metal with a hard and silvery appearance and has a somewhat abundant on the planet, estimated to be the 50th most common element in the earthâ€™s crust. However, it is sparsely dispersed and is found mostly in trace amounts, except in regions of Scandinavia (from which it gets its name) and Madagascar where large concentrations can be found.

Scandium can be added to aluminum, creating an alloy that increases the strength of the metal in heat-affected zones, such as around welds. Applications of this alloy are found in some aerospace components Scandium alloys were used in Russian MiG 21 and MiG 29 aircraft), as well as consumer products like baseball bats, lacrosse sticks and bicycle frames. Scandium is also used in some hand guns (revolvers), while some molecules containing the element are used in high-intensity discharge lamps and light bulbs.
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Yttrium

Another transition metal, Yttrium is chemically similar to the lanthanides and is only found combined with other rare earth metals and uranium ores and is never found as a free element in nature. Despite this, Yttrium is estimated to be the 28th most abundant element in the earthâ€™s crust, about 400 times more abundant than silver.

Yttriumâ€™s primary application is in LED televisions, where yttrium oxide is combined with europium to help produce red pixels. It can also be used for increasing strength of aluminum and magnesium alloys and has been used in superconductors that must be kept at ultra-low temperatures. Yttrium also has applications in the treatment of various cancers such as lymphoma, leukemia, ovarian, pancreatic and bone cancers.
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Lanthanum

The first member in the Lanthanide series, it is a silvery-white metallic element that is usually found in combination with cerium and other rare earth elements. Lanthanum is relatively abundant, appearing about twice as frequently in the earthâ€™s crust as nitrogen, lead or lithium.

Lanthanum is used in nickel-metal hydride batteries in Hybrid cars, which carry between 20-25 pounds of the element. As engineers devise ways to increase fuel mileage, it is expected that up to twice the amount of lanthanum could be used in each vehicle. Lanthanum is also used in the production of electronic vacuum tubes, camera and telescope lenses, as a steel additive and even in certain medications.
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Go ahead and click the link it covers 18 elements I believe.

Here is my take. China has provided these elements for far cheaper than anyone else will using basically slave labor through communism. Ironically they would sell all their rare earth elements because their population did not need them they lived in grass huts, ate rice, and walked where they needed to go.

Now China as well as India are emerging as world economies by embracing Capitalism. Problem is as a consequence their population is coming out of the dark ages and as a country they are starting to consume their own production. So they have less and less to sell as an export.

We will have to go back to producing our own.

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Rare Earth Metals Monopoly

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