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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-11617007

I first became aware of this subject (and very late too) in 2010 in military circles when China began to reduce it's exports of Rare Earth Metals (REM) and Rare Earth Elements (REE). Consequently because China controls 85% to 95% of these minerals World wide, the prices sky rocketed. By Skyrocketed I actually mean Saturn V on full burn.



China has imposed export restraints on raw materials including rare earths, tungsten and molybdenum, causing worldwide supplies to plummet, sending prices higher and threatening strategic stockpiles. China is the largest supplier of 28 of the 52 elements on the [British] Geological Survey’s risk list.

As someone who, since becoming a civilian, invests on the Stock market (specifically in metals, minerals and resources) this chinese policy has reaped a huge advantages to investors as the few companies outside of China have had their product prices rise out of all proportion and suddenly unviable mines have become viable and their huge profits have driven their penny shares into the £1-£2 mark, results in huge % increase and profit when these stocks are sold. (this has paid for a fair few Models )

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-17655146

The real issue is the concerns from the military over the lack of minerals to make high level weaponry, electronics and sensors, Tungsten is particularly useful for penetrator weapons due to it's density. The current culture of outsourcing has bitten the west hard and this subject is being discussed heavily in Political circles, but no-one on the street seems to know anything about it.

http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/R41744.pdf

(IF NOTHING ELSE READ THE ABOVE LINK)

And the political ramifications

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/111/s4031/text

(4) Although at least 40 percent of the world’s reserves of rare earth elements are located within the United States and countries that are allies of the United States, the United States now depends on imports for nearly 100 percent of its needs for rare earth materials because there are virtually no active producers of rare earth materials in the United States.

All of this basically means we have been caught with out pants down and this may prove a critical vulnerability in any West vs East confrontation. Oh and your consumer electronics, iPADS etc will cost even more because of the extensive use of REE and REM in their manufacture.

It will eventually correct itself as Western Companies re-open mines (with a 5-10 year lead in), however the Chinese could relax their restrictions at any point and cripple them and thereby maintain their monopoly. So State protectionism will have to be engineered, and bang goes the free trade for this commodity. Rare Earth Metal is to China, What Crude Oil is to Saudi Arabia. Oil is a none issue it will be slowly reduced and phased out. Without REM REE our entire hightech world goes down the pan.

May you live in Interesting Times eh?

The last thing I heard about rare earth metals was that there was a huge basin of the stuff in the middle of the Pacific Ocean near Japan and companies was investigating the viability of pulling these materials from the deep ocean.

Wish I could find an article about it.

You mean the maganese balls?

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

Rare Earth metals haven't been found on the sea floor like this in huge amounts, some individual rare earth elements have been found yes. rather like Golf balls at the bottom of a course lake. Although they maybe out there... But at the moment we get almost all our REE and REM from open cast mining in China.

=/ Hmn, the guy did work for the CIA, so maybe he used his expieriances there to write that book....?

Thanks China!

yup, however it does have positives, it's going to benefit Devon no end.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-17322208

So it's not all bad, just strange, because China would normally sell anything to get their hands on your money. So why are they doing this? Protectionism? To cripple Western Military Dominance?

mwnciboo wrote:yup, however it does have positives, it's going to benefit Devon no end.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-17322208

So it's not all bad, just strange, because China would normally sell anything to get their hands on your money. So why are they doing this? Protectionism? To cripple Western Military Dominance?

Maybe they are using it in a new super weapon
Or not...

I was talking about something along these lines with my grandfather. He works for the patent office in the Optics department, and a lot of surgical and high grade optic sensors and lenses use REMs and REEs to work effectively (I'm not sure how, but I'm guessing they use them for ionization or something)...

This is going to hurt us in the long run. I doubt we've really tapped into our own REM deposits yet, and neither have plenty of countries we're friendly with, but it's still going to hurt.

purplefood wrote:
Maybe they are using it in a new super weapon
Or not...

OMG they are building a Deathstar aren't they. Those Bast*rds.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Samus_aran115 wrote:I was talking about something along these lines with my grandfather. He works for the patent office in the Optics department, and a lot of surgical and high grade optic sensors and lenses use REMs and REEs to work effectively (I'm not sure how, but I'm guessing they use them for ionization or something)...

This is going to hurt us in the long run. I doubt we've really tapped into our own REM deposits yet, and neither have plenty of countries we're friendly with, but it's still going to hurt.

Funny back in the 60's & 70's the US was the World leader and major producer. Late 70's China found Billions of tons of it in the North, by mid-80's the cost was so much cheaper in China that all US and European ventures gave up as the profit was marginal. Cue the 90's and the Mobile Phone boom and suddenly it became alot more profitable, cue the 2000 plus literally thousands of components required REE, iPOD etc. Profit margins increase, but it's still cheaper to get it from China. 2010, whallop, no more exports.

You do have Mines ready to go, but the investment, machinery and expertise needs to be brought back and commissioned, this isn't "THE MANHATTAN PROJECT" so money isn't as forth coming. Mining is exceptionally expensive to setup and profits are made over long periods not short periods.

This is pretty old news. The Yanks and Australians startled and started re-opening the old mines etc, and I think they found a gak load off the coast of Japan.

It's not easily harvested on the Sea bed its 20,000 ft down and each is the size of a football to a golf ball (never been done before so it's experimental and likely to required Massive investment, and won't be ready for at least 10 years), unlike open cast mining. Plus it is exceptionally expensive to seperate the minerals. So much more expensive that it is not viable at this time.

We need a COMMANDER from Total Annhilation or Supreme Commander to go down there and hover it all up .

It's not old News, this is from a Month Ago, it's very much on going.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-17348648

For Example, lets imagine a small country on the Coast of the Mediterranean needs to buy some very special weapons (with a very high level of penetration). Lets say this Country is friends with a big Country and is also the mortal enemy of another Country. They Big Country has the same Enemy. The small country says "I need some of those *Special* Bombs", "Sorry, were all out of those *Special* Bombs, because they are very expensive and use very special metals and we haven't got a stockpile, we have a small inventory and replace them as we go because they cost £2 Million a pop". "How the hell are we going bomb the hell out the Nuclear reactors in Iran..." "Sssshhh, people are listening".

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/netanyahu-asked-panetta-to-approve-sale-of-bunker-busting-bombs-u-s-official-says-1.416900

So yeah to people like PAVEWAY this will have some big ramifications, hence the secret Congressional Hearings, the sudden house bill, the massive level of concern. e.g we need a stockpile in order to ensure if conflict comes we've got Arrows to fire at everyone. Everything on this Planet is inter-related.