danielalexs: China's Rare Earth Quotas

Today, 06:15 PM

? #1

Premium Member

Join Date: Apr 2007

Posts: 6,403

Export quotas from China for rare earth metals (from China Daily newspaper):

2009: 43.9k tons

2010: 39.8k tons

2011: 18.6k tons

Allotment:

Japan: 56%

U.S.: 14%

France: 10%

Others: 20%

So, we already knew that China owns 97% of the world's rare earth metals, which are used for rechargeable batteries, solar power, wind turbines, cell phones, etc.

So why would Obama invest hundreds of millions of dollars in solar tech? Cannot even a simpleton understand that if your competitor owns 97% of the world's supply of your main raw material, you're in the wrong business? And is Obama serious about investing in wind turbine technology? Could he be that stupid? I would think that even a dimwit like GWB might learn from his mistakes on something like this. Incidentally, I believe that China's purchase of the rare earth's mine in California was blocked during the GWB administration, so the situation would have been much worse without his administration's foresight. It's not often that liberals get to admit that GWB was smarter than their president.

Today, 06:44 PM

? #3

Heisman Winner

Join Date: Apr 2007

Posts: 5,240

Maybe not as bad as it sounds

Quote:

China?s grip on the world?s rare earth market may be slipping

Posted by Brad Plumer on October 19, 2012 at 11:03 am
Okay, that?s not quite as weird as it sounds. Rare earth metals are crucial for a wide range of electronics, from fluorescent bulbs to iPod headphones to hybrid vehicles. And China produces 95 percent of the world?s supply. So when China began sharply restricting exports in 2010 ? allegedly to give its own industries an advantage ? the global prices for rare earths skyrocketed. Bad news.

Except now it?s looking like the rare earth crisis is receding. As this chart from Reuters? Scott Barber shows, the prices for various rare earth metals have started to fall quickly after exploding in 2010. (Gold and silver are in there for comparison to show that this isn?t related to a general swing in commodities.)

So what happened here? One key thing to note is that, despite their colorful name, rare earth metals aren?t actually all that rare. At one point or another during the twentieth century, Brazil, India, the United States and South Africa were all major producers. It?s just that, in the 1980s, China decided to ramp up production massively, driving out competitors and cornering the market. (China managed to do this, in part, by going easy on environmental oversight of mining, which can be a horrifically dirty process.)

Then in 2010, China decided to restrict its export quota by 40 percent. That helped drive prices up and suddenly made it economical for other countries to start boosting their own production again again. Out in Mountain Pass, Calif., for instance, Molycorp is now reopening and expanding its massive rare earth metals mine.

So even though China is still the world?s largest rare earths supplier, its ability to control the global market has lessened greatly. Within two years, the market adjusted. As a result, Barber notes, ?China itself also is changing its tune and has announced a higher export quota.?

link

Quote:

China boosts its yearly rare-earth export quota

Summary: China has increased its 2012 rare-earth export quota amid international pressure.
Charlie Osborne

By Charlie Osborne for Between the Lines | August 22, 2012 -- 07:24 GMT (00:24 PDT)

The country controls 95 percent of the world's rare-earth metal production, which are used in a number of applications -- including the development of smartphones and mobile devices, defense systems and wind turbines.

The WSJ reports that this majority control, which affects mainly developers of tech products, has been a cause for concern internationally. Governments as well as individual corporations have maintained pressure on Beijing to loosen its grip, and now limits on these key minerals have been lifted.

The full year quota will now be set at 30,996 metric tons; 2.7 percent higher than last year. China generally runs exports in two batches, and so the second batch this year will be boosted to 8,537 tons of light rare earth minerals and 1,233 tons of medium to heavy metals.

link

Just a guess, but it may only be a matter of time before China's domination of the rare earths may go the way of OPEC's domination of petroleum exports.

Prices may also say something about the ability of the Chinese to control the market

Today, 07:30 PM

? #8

Premium Member

Join Date: Apr 2007

Posts: 4,843

Asteroid mining

Quote:

Based on known terrestrial reserves and growing consumption in developing countries, there is speculation that key elements needed for modern industry, including antimony, zinc, tin, silver, lead, indium, gold, and copper, could be exhausted on Earth within 50?60 years.[2] In response, it has been suggested that platinum, cobalt and other valuable elements from asteroids may be mined and sent to Earth for profit, and water mined from ice could be used for orbiting propellant depots,[3][4][5] solar-power satellites, and space habitats.[6][7]
In fact, all the gold, cobalt, iron, manganese, molybdenum, nickel, osmium, palladium, platinum, rhenium, rhodium, ruthenium, and tungsten mined from the Earth's crust, and that are essential for economic and technological progress, came originally from the rain of asteroids that hit the Earth after the crust cooled.[8][9][10] This is because, while asteroids and the Earth congealed from the same starting materials, Earth's massive gravity pulled all such heavy siderophilic (iron-loving) elements into the planet's core during its molten youth more than four billion years ago.[11] This left the crust depleted of such valuable elements[12] until asteroid impacts re-infused the depleted crust with metals.

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Today, 07:40 PM

? #9

Premium Member

Join Date: Apr 2007

Posts: 4,843

http://www.electricvehiclesresearch....sp?sessionid=1

Quote:

Earlier this month the British journal Nature Geoscience published an article revealing the discovery of rare earth mineral deposits by Japanese scientists on the Pacific Ocean seabed. The scientists estimate this discovery "could provide one-fifth of the current annual world consumption" of rare earth elements, which include neodymium used in EV motor magnets, lanthanum used in NiMH EV batteries, dysprosium, gadolinium, lutetium, terbium and the metal yttrium, discovered at numerous sites throughout the eastern South and central North Pacific.

These elements are specific in their applications, used in green energy-technologies such as solar panels and wind turbines, LED lighting and electric vehicles. The discovery could have a significant effect on these industries if the deposits can be "readily recovered from the mud by simple acid leaching" as the scientists suggest. Dysprosium, for example, can readily substitute neodymium in neodymium-iron-boron magnets to increase the strength of the coercive field for hybrid drive-motors, whilst a terbium zirconium oxide alloy is used to stabilize crystals within fuel cells at elevated temperatures.

The potential to disrupt China's near-monopoly on the EV component market lies on the sea floor as Beijing's +90% share of current rare-element resources is challenged by the new findings, although political confrontation may ensue as the deposits lie in international waters.

Yet the ecological dispute continues; is gaining large mineral quantities for green technologies worth dredging up the Pacific Ocean floor for? To hedge its bets, the EV industry is developing motor magnets that use nano-materials that employ less neodymium and increasing the use of AC asynchronous motors - basically rotating transformers invented by Tesla in 1900 - that use no rare earths at all. Indeed, in a nice resonance, the Tesla car uses them, not just forklifts and several other types of EV. Anyway, there are other sources of rare earths opening up outside China and lithium traction batteries are replacing the lanthanum dependent NiMH batteries in hybrids. Even the plug in Prius uses Li-ion and there are multiple sources of lithium and the other elements used in Li batteries. Stop worrying.

__________________
?To argue with a person who has renounced the use of reason is like administering medicine to the dead.? ~ Thomas Paine