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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWhy China's threat to restrict rare earth minerals is so serious
China's threat to curb exports of rare earth minerals to the United States could move the needle in an escalating trade war as the world's two largest economies continue to jockey for leverage.
The official newspaper of the Communist Party of China explicitly warned the U.S. on Wednesday that China would cut off rare earth minerals as a countermeasure in the escalated trade battle.
Rare earth minerals are a suite of 17 elements mineable in the earth's crust, with names such as cerium, europium and lutetium. They are commonly used in everything from car motors and electronics to oil refining and clean diesel to many major weapons systems the U.S. relies on for national security, including lasers and radar.
About 35% of rare earth global reserves are in China, the most in the world, and the country is a mining machine, producing 120,000 metric tons or 70% of total rare earths in 2018, according to the United States Geological Survey. The U.S. pales in comparison as it mined 15,000 metric tons of rare earths in 2018 and has a total of 1.4 million metric tons of reserves, versus China's 44 million.
U.S. consumption of rare earth compounds and metals relies heavily on imports, which rose to $160 million in 2018, according to USGS. Eighty percent were from China. To make it worse, although other countries supply to the U.S. including Estonia (6%), France (3%) and Japan (3%), much of their materials were derived from mineral concentrates and chemical substances produced in China, according to Hui Shan, commodities analyst at Goldman Sachs.
"The U.S.' reliance on Chinese supply may be higher than the import breakdown data suggest on the surface," Shan said in a note on Wednesday.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/why-chinas-threat-to-restrict-rare-earth-minerals-is-so-serious/ar-AAC9sdJ?li=BBnbfcN
Wellstone ruled
(34,661 posts)abqtommy
(14,118 posts)Igel
(35,383 posts)One that was known years ago, to be honest.
Lithium used to be a similar kind of problem metal, but that was largely resolved in the last decade.
Wellstone ruled
(34,661 posts)about to come is,the largest untapped deposits of Rare Earth Metals are suppose ably in Afghanistan and being developed by Chinese Interests. Guardian News as well as BBC ran stories about our Troops protecting these same Mining operations from the Bandit's in the Region.
shanti
(21,675 posts)And Burundi? China probably controls them too. They're all over Africa.
Blue_true
(31,261 posts)He instituted a research program on alternatives and the program was having some success. But Trump ended it. I hope that the materials that the President Obama iniative developed can save us.
One problem is that the two most important Rare Earths are pretty much China and no one else.
Blue_true
(31,261 posts)But Trump stopped the program President Obama had going to develop new composite materials that could be substituted for Rare Earths in many important commercial applications, allowing us to devote the real thing to highly sensitive applications and defense applications.
roamer65
(36,748 posts)Dump should not have put us in this position.