Take That China! Japan finds 200 years worth of rare earth metals

lol. That is probably good for China. When ever I hear China versus Japan, I have to have the sentimental pro china after learning what went on in WWII. The government of japan is quite different now, and most are too young to have been alive during it. Sunday morning thoughts. Talk amoung yourselves.

 

There are rare earths everywhere. It's just that China has the easy stuff and doesn't sweat the nasty stuff.

What's really annoying is that if we had an holistic attitude and systemic recycling then the waste and toxicity issues would seem trifling compared to having the resource available for use for the next billion years.

 

Here is a recent good article, general discussion of managing metal resources as global population grows. Discusses lithium and rare earths. But phosphorous used for fertilizer sounds like a bigger concern for the long term future. Rare earths not so rare but over-dependence on China is short term issue.

Forging A Better Supply Chain For Minerals | June 25, 2012 Issue - Vol. 90 Issue 26 | Chemical & Engineering News

 

At more than 3 miles down, might as well be in China.

Gotta get those Prius engineers on a solution to suck that mud up over 3 miles from the sea floor.

New plate possibilities? RUNSONMUD YURMUDDER MUDMOBILE

 

Actually, the rare earths in California are shipped off by train as raw ore, to a port, to be processed in China, too. I think they do some rock crushing and whatnot here to make it easier to transport, but that's about it. You know, the typical third world colonialist scenario where raw resources are exploited and sent to be converted to finished products by an industrialized nation.

As for deep sea minerals... good luck competing economically with more conventional means of producing ore. Sure, you CAN break up and slurp ore up 18,000 feet of pipe, for a TREMENDOUS investment in machinery and energy.

You know, like the 'infinite oil'. We never run out of oil. We only run out of oil that's cheap enough to burn.

 

In many cases the processing of the ore of rare earths creates a lot of noxious materials, and that is one reason that California stopped processing rare earths. China isn't so squeamish about its environment. The second major cost issues in metal processing is the cost of energy, metals are incredibly energy intensive. The Chinese government assigns energy prices to individual industries for tactical purposes. The metals industry gets virtually free energy and is able to process for practically nothing, as long as the metal is used by Chinese industry. If the metal is to be exported they charge western prices. This type of monopolistic price undercutting is illegal in the developed world but is the fundamental key to China's "competitiveness" or "anti-competitiveness" depending upon the eye of the beholder.

 

It doesn't sound like that is the case anymore. Molycorp's Mountain Pass California facility has been modernized and is making rare earth oxides at it's facility.
Molycorp | Investor Center

 

Oxides are not metals, any more than bauxite is aluminum. Though it looks like they plan to fully process by the end of this year. The real problem seems to be that some of the trailings/waste from ore processing there are radioactive, along with the typical environmentalist whining about that, and all the past history of radioactive leaks from that site.

 

Pollution in mining and processing are part of the reason china has such a large proportion of production. Increased Chinese environmental regulation and other costs increases make mining here look better. Rare-Earth Mining Rises Again in United States | Wired Science | Wired.com

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That's a poor analogy. Bauxite is a raw ore containing far more than just aluminum oxides.

With the amount of investment and environment scrutiny the facility is getting, it's safe bet that they won't be as careless this time. People learn, they really do.

 

Japan Discovers 200 Years' Supply of Rare Earth | Hybrid Cars

Looks like China will now have some competition.

 

Wasn't this already posted?