Subscribe to Common Dreams News Updates
Most Popular This Week
Popular content
Today's Top News
Concern as China Clamps Down on Rare Earth Exports
Neodymium is one of 17 metals crucial to green technology. There’s only one snag – China produces 97% of the world’s supply. And they’re not selling
Britain and other Western countries risk running out of supplies of certain highly sought-after rare metals that are vital to a host of green technologies, amid growing evidence that China, which has a monopoly on global production, is set to choke off exports of valuable compounds.
A neodymium magnet, commonly used in motors, loudspeakers and other appliances. Neodymium is a rare earth element Failure to secure alternative long-term sources of rare earth elements (REEs) would affect the manufacturing and development of low-carbon technology, which relies on the unique properties of the 17 metals to mass-produce eco-friendly innovations such as wind turbines and low-energy lightbulbs.
China, whose mines account for 97 per cent of global supplies, is trying to ensure that all raw REE materials are processed within its borders. During the past seven years it has reduced by 40 per cent the amount of rare earths available for export.
Industry sources have told The Independent that China could halt shipments of at least two metals as early as next year, and that by 2012 it is likely to be producing only enough REE ore to satisfy its own booming domestic demand, creating a potential crisis as Western countries rush to find alternative supplies, and companies open new mines in locations from South Africa to Greenland to satisfy international demand.
Amid claims that Beijing is using its rare earths monopoly as a tool of foreign policy, the British Department of Business, Industry and Skills said it was "monitoring" the supply of REEs to ensure China was observing international trade rules.
Jack Lifton, an independent consultant and a world expert on REEs, said: "A real crunch is coming. In America, Britain and elsewhere we have not yet woken up to the fact that there is an urgent need to secure the supply of rare earths from sources outside China. China has gone from exporting 75 per cent of the raw ore it produces to shipping just 25 per cent, and it does not consider itself to be under any obligation to ensure supplies of rare earths to anyone but itself. There has been an effort in the West to set up new mines but these are five to 10 years away from significant production."
After decades in which they were considered little more than geological oddities, rare earths have recently become a boom industry after the invention of a succession of devices, including iPhones and X-ray machines, which rely on their specific properties.
Global demand has tripled from 40,000 tons to 120,000 tonnes over the past 10 years, during which time China has steadily cut annual exports from 48,500 tonnes to 31,310 tons.
Worldwide, the industries reliant on REEs, which produce anything from fiber-optic cables to missile guidance systems, are estimated to be worth £3 trillion, or 5 per cent of global GDP.
Beijing announced last month that it was setting exports at 35,000 tonnes for each of the next six years, barely enough to satisfy demand in Japan. From this year, Toyota alone will produce annually one million of its hybrid Prius cars, each of which contains 16kg of rare earths. By 2014, global demand for rare earths is predicted to reach 200,000 tonnes a year as the green revolution takes hold.
Nearly all of China's supply of rare earths comes from a single mine near the city of Baotou, in Inner Mongolia. The remainder comes from small and sometimes illegal mines in the south of the country, leading to devastating pollution from the poisonous and sometimes radioactive ores.
Environmentalists argue that this, coupled with widespread criticism of China's stance during the Copenhagen climate summit, adds to the need for a "plurality" of rare earth resources. One campaigner said: "There are legitimate questions over Beijing's control of these resources. Copenhagen showed they are not above putting national interest ahead of global efforts to curtail global warming."
Once extracted and refined, the rare earth metals can be put to a dizzying range of hi-tech uses. Neodymium, one of the most common rare earths, is a key part of neodymium-iron-boron magnets used in hyper-efficient motors and generators. Around two tonnes of neodymium are needed for each wind turbine. Lanthanum, another REE, is a major ingredient for hybrid car batteries (each Prius uses up to 15kg), while terbium is vital for low-energy light bulbs and cerium is used in catalytic converters.
In October, an internal report by China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology disclosed proposals to ban the export of five rare earths and restrict supplies of the remaining metals. Beijing strenuously denied that the document was an accurate reflection of its strategy, saying it had no desire to reduce trade in rare earths. But The Independent understands that the level of demand in China means that supplies of at least two crucial REEs - terbium and dysprosium - are likely to be curtailed by as early as next year.
Dr Ian Higgins, general manager of Birkenhead-based Less Common Metals, which specializes in rare earth products, said: "There is a threat that in the next 12 to 18 months, there might be some quite severe shortages of these rare earths. That is certainly going to impact those hi-tech green industries outside China."
Both Western countries and China are already dashing to secure new sources of rare earths. Last year, Australian regulators imposed restrictions on the purchase of one of the country's richest rare earth mines, causing a Chinese company to walk away from a £400m deal to buy its operator.
European and North American companies are meanwhile racing to open or re-open mines in Canada, South Africa and Greenland amid calls in the US for government-backed loans to secure supplies of some REEs which are used in the guidance systems of missiles and laser-guided munitions. Toyota has effectively bought its own rare earth mine in Vietnam by signing an exclusive supply deal.
The Department for Business, Industry and Skills acknowledged the growing concern in Western capitals. A spokesman said: "We are monitoring the situation, particularly with regard to World Trade Organization rules. We are working with UK industry to assess the long-term demand for strategically important resources, including rare earth elements."
90 Comments so far
Show AllChina is not our friend. Never has been and never will be. Those fools that rush over there to do business and to borrow money are digging our graves in the long run. Just remember the oriental mind thinks in the very long term while we can only think about a week in advance. Stupid, Stupid, Stupid.
"China is not our friend."
Who is a friend of the US? The US uses manipulation and threats to force it's so called friends to behave in a manner that will support US interests. If that doesn't work, the US supports coups to overthrow the governments and install puppets to run the dictatorship governments. If the "friends" (puppet or no) don't cooperate, the US stigmatizes them and casts them as enemies.
Kissinger, in quoting the Victorian MP Henry John Temple once said: America has no friends, only interests. seems like this empire is following the path of the British
Funny, I thought Kissinger was talking about himself.
Perhaps he was talking about both.
In stating a fact about China the intent was to take notice of all the capitalist fools that want to do business anywhere just to make money and not even looking at the consequences of their actions. Very short sightedness in the so called business community trying to turn an economy into a global economy. I wonder why everyone is accepting the concept of a global economy and not very many questioning the concept. There seems to be some huge caps in our memories. As to the question of who is the friend of the US, I myself do not know any and it is true of the idea of self interest being the motivator and very few look at the fallacy of that philosophy.
The culprits are not the "capitalist fools" but the elected officials who'd rather accept a payoff from them rather than do the job they were elected to do, which includes regulating "capitalist fools" so that they do more good than harm.
It's a large leap from an individual having friends to a country or state having friends. Are humans that evolved? Countries only have self interest, or perceived self interest.
The U.S. has NO friends; not even itself. That is, the US is not it's sole friend, it's its sole real enemy, certainly not a friend. Whoever thinks the government of the USA is friend of The People of the USA needs to get a real-world education.
So no more cheap knockoffs of "Get Ready" and "I Just Want to Celebrate" CDs?
Damn!
q
PS I bet recycling sounds a whole lot better now, doesn't it?
I wonder if this will beat water as the next round of resource wars?
We're rapidly approaching the point at which we can say, "Where there's a resource, there's a war."
q
Just wait until you can buy stock in Peri-Air :-)
What would we do if we had the resources? We would, first of all, allow some well connected corporation to obtain a monopoly on the supply, and then allow that monopoly to sell to anyone, friend or foe. No national interest here. But we will fan the fires of war to get anything that one of our corps wants from some other region of the world. So the difference between the Chinese and the Americans is that the Chinese can and will act in their own national interest. We act only in the interest of big business.
You nailed it. After all, China, in Chinese means "Middle Kingdom." That is, China lies at the center and barbarian nations exist on the outside. The Great Wall was designed to keep them out. China has always regarded itself as superior to all other nations and always has acted to protect its interests. We used to behave that way, but we don't now.
We don't?
China in Mandarin is Zhongguo.
Zhong is middle, and guo is simply country, not kingdom, which would be wangguo.
My handle --waiguoren --is literally: wai -outside, guo -country, ren -person.
In other words, foreigner.
The word 'guo' has been applied to kingdoms as in 'sanguoyanyi' the tale of three kingdoms--the standard English translation of that classic. The character 'guo' predates the use of the modern word 'nation'--a word that does not have a long history in English.
America in Mandarin is Meiguo.
Beautiful country.
At least the Chinese are polite.
China is becoming the world power because we have allowed ourself to be taken over because of the large debt we owe them. They have become the master and we have become the slave because of our greed. We have not been smart, and sooner or later and I think sooner we will see the results of that stupidity.
The pollyanna in me likes to think that we still have time to change it but the reality is that I am afraid we have almost reached the point of no return. Not only on how we have allowed China to gain more and more power over us as a soverign nation, but our reaction to such issues as Climate change. We who know the truth must never give up trying to do the right thing, though at this point since we have waited so long we might just be another Don Quixote and any effort we make is just fruitless. Either way we have to keep on trying to do the right thing.
Recycle.
Ah yes.
Only America is "entitled" to all the resources of the world. This is the life-blood of corporate greed.
You have your front row seat to America's NEXT invasion of a sovereign nation. Another illegal war to rape & plunder for GREED.
America isn't interested in saving the planet, only the corporate bottom line.
chrisie58
The way you describe you feelings are about the same as as would mine. There are days I want to believe we can do something to stop about our faster and faster slide into oblivion. Then there are days I feel that the world my kids will live in will be a hell hole for survival of the meanest with the most power. which we are getting a glimpse of already.
Day by day, I think and think about how to prepare them, which future to perpare them for. We, my husband and I talk about them going to college, making a career for themselves. My oldest, 13, so far is thinking of being a CSI. She asks questions about how to do that. The youngest, 10, wants to be a singer. She DOES have a voice.
But the world they will become adults in, may be very different than the one that exists now. Who knows what they will have to contend with.
It's a day by day watch
Peering into the future
Trying to find light
But all I see is darkness
Piece by Piece of info
putting together a picture
what will the future be
My breath is held
but my heart beats forward
My chidren grow
toward what kind
of tomorrow
By far the largest single use of Neodymium is in the high-power magnets in every hard drive made for the past 25 years. Those hundreds of millions of magnets on every desk and in every home and I-pod in the US contain enormous amounts of salvageable Neodymium.
But, because the US "business community" has stifled any serious legislation requiring manufacturers to recycle their products (as the EU has done), where are almost all retired computers and hard drives going? If not being buried in a landfill, they are dumped into ships to China!
The National Geographic article "High Tech Trash" by Chris Carroll, reprinted in the book "The Best American Science and Nature Writing, 2009" [Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Elizabeth Kolbert, ed.] follows the journey of electronic trash from the U.S. to China, where in some places individuals melt down circuit boards in pots and pans to extract the valuable metals. The author states that "under current policies, pound for pound it is still more profitable to ship waste abroad than to process it safely at home."
The author also points out that some of the toxic waste that we ship to China makes it way back to us in Chinese products. As the author relates, two American chemists recently published a paper arguing that the proportions of lead, copper, and tin in a sample of cheap Chinese jewelry suggest that their source was leaded solder used in the manufacture of electronic circuit boards.
And with the exception of the US and China, all of the industrial world has banned lead solder in electronic circuits and components under the international RoHS standards. Like all other international agreements, the US goes out of it's way to defy it.
'Nearly all of China's supply of rare earths comes from a single mine..'
actually, occupied Tibet sits on top of the world's largest reserve of another rare earth, Lithium. they can kiss their freedom goodbye
Lithium isn't a rare earth, it is the lightest salt-forming alkali metal, chemically comparable to sodium or potassium.
Er, I thought their freedom had already been long gone.
Lithium is key for the new generation of li-ion batteries (such as the 16kWh battery in the soon to be produced Chevy Volt), but no, it's not a rare earth (which are 17 particular elements).
I didn't realize Tibet had so much lithium, but you're right - the current largest producer is Chile:
"...the vast majority of the world's easily extractable lithium metals, in the form of lithium carbonate, is found in only two places on the planet: the Altiplano region that encompasses Chile (the world's largest producer), Argentina and Bolivia. A second similarly remote resource is being developed in Tibet."
http://www.evworld.com/article.cfm?storyid=1182
The only source for Lithium-iron phosphate cells and other components for do-it-yourself EV builders is China. Thanks to Chinese firms, I will be enjoying my fifth year of 2-wheel EV use for nearly all my 3-season transportation.
US lithium battery or motor controller manufacturers wouldn't even return my phone calls or e-mails.
Whatever the purpose it will require that the earth be stripped of the natural resources which will eventually reach that tipping point that even the 'elite' will find it hard to digest their gold and crystals.
bugger.................
more and more it looks like the only way for humans to survive will be for our bodies to adapt to the environment, not making the environment adapt to our bodies...
it does sound like a basis for a sci-fi film,like X-men... but it also sounds like a solution. Maybe not one we can consciously do- but one that could happen over time. Of course, there could be some geneticists out there who would jump on the band wagon for the right price...hope I didn't put a bad idea in someone's head.
I just think it is interesting how we are supposed to be the evolved species, yet we cannot even make our bodies keep us alive in open enviroment. We have no fur, unless we kill for it. We have to have all kinds of tools, to get our food. Some how this doesn't sound too evolved. oh, yeah, and we make war, where all get killed in the process on a large scale. What animal does that, except us.
well the neanderthals managed to survive during the last glacial age for a span of about 100,000 years which implies they were better adapted biologically to cold weather than homo sapiens......
and according to one theory as to their extinction, it might have been interaction with homo sapiens...................
yeah, that would probably do it..................
Ho ho! Better learn to speak Chinese, the next global language. But smart people have known that for a long time. Wonder what other surprises the Celestial Kingdom has waiting for us on its way to global domination. But the last laugh may be on them. There might be no human species to dominate in the near future. Looks like Chinese greed is going to dominant Chinese smarts, as the Year of Global Collapse approaches.
Corporate America and our elected officials have created a monster. The people running Corporate America are making huge amounts of money for themselves from our trade with China and our elected officials are too corrupt and clueless to do their job and deal with this situation.
Corporate America has entered into an alliance with the Chinese government whereby the Chinese government provides low/no cost labor, plant site, utilities and raw materials and limited access to the Chinese market, on condition of participation of a Chinese partner, technology transfer and export of most production. This arrangement provides China's rulers with three things: jobs for its people to secure its political power at home, technological know how for its military, and foreign exchange to purchase foreign resources and further increase its power. The people running Corporate America make lots of money (whose value is maintained by Chinese currency manipulation) for themselves from this arrangement due to nearly zero cost manufacturing, and buy off our elected officials to do nothing but go along. The corporate media just cheers along or keeps silent.
You are correct, unfortunately it looks like most Progressives have fallen for their storyline too. They cheer along too.
It's sad, but most of what one would expect would be the oppostion, "Progressives", are just as clueless on trade issues as rank and file supporters.
The American government recently put a strict limit on the importation of Chinese steel and a while back, limited the importation of Chinese made tires. Pay back?
The Chinese government has to increase demand by restricting export to raise costs of these "rare earths." This is to bring in more money to fill China's coffers in order to produce jobs and to feed the great number of its citizens. It is the only way the government can stop a complete revolt by its citizens.
Meanwhile, capitalists in Western countries are screaming "unfair" because it affects their profits - not because they want to "go green" or to ensure jobs for their own populace. They scream because they cannot have a monopoly on these resources.
Will our 'leaders' ever learn humility?
You are making a mistake about China. They are Merchantilists, it has nothing to do with humility.
*** Comment deleted by site administrators for violating our Comment Policy. ***
see: http://www.commondreams.org/comment-policy
Which part of Chinas unfair trade with us is keeping Americansd from having jobs? Do you see any difference in...I sell to you, no tax or tariff, but if you sell to me high tariffs and taxes, especially on some products. Did you miss where many of our jobs and industries have gone?
*** Comment deleted by site administrators for violating our Comment Policy. ***
see: http://www.commondreams.org/comment-policy
Keep betting against America. You will lose.
As for the tecnologies that need these elements, including batteries for electric cars....DUH.
Does this mean that all the folks here that have insulted me every time I've mentioned this fact over the last year have suddenly figured things out?
If you cannot provide your own needs you are subject to someone elses demands. Perhaps some will start to see the need for some fresh thinking.
Are you finally getting the message about China? While they have your attention, maybe you should notice their new Blue Water navy and the Sunbmarine service as large as ours,their two million men under arms. They are building them only for Parades of course.
China keeps betting against America.
Are they losing ?
China knows our politicians well; they know that they can be easily bought by the business interests who are benefitting financially from our trade relationship with China.
Some musings.
Well if metals are and rare means not much of; then why worry. By definition they won't be around for long anyway.
Except, China will have much more military technology than rest of world.
Where was the CIA on all of this?
Why were Western powers watching by as rare earths were gobbled up by Chinese in other parts of world.
USofA wants oil energy not wind turbine energy anyway.
Why did America send rare earths to China as "junk" instead of gleaning "junk" themselves?
Why do we buy from Wal Mart and Nike et al?
Why is General Motors successful in China but not America?
Is the CIA not really stupid and has eyes on rare metals in other countries anyway? One thing for sure the Chinese are not stupid. Us? We're just defined by greed and instant gratification.
Are there too many people on this panet which leads to most all of what ails this planet anyway? You know the answer to that.
The article seems to suggest that China is the only source of these Rare Earths.
This is utter and complete poppycock. One of the largest deposits of these metals is in California. Canada, South Africa and Australia also have huge deposits.
A few decades ago China was barely producing Rare Earth metals so how did they get there?
They used the Western System of Capitalism against the West . What they did is start exporting these materials to the rest of the World at prices far lower then the Mining Companies in The West could produce them.
The deposits of Rare Earths at Californias Mountain Pass mine are double that of Chinas largest mine. The deposits in Canadas North West Territories are larger then those at Mountain Pass.
This forced Western producers to respond in kind and due to a higher wage structure and more enviromental protections and the like led to these mines being shut down or exploration and or development of existing deposits to halt. Investors demand a return on their Capital. They can not get that return when they have to Compete with mines in China where 2 dollar a day wages normal.
In other words because there was no PROFIT in competing with Chinese Supply the Western nations no longer have a supply.
Now China is in the drivers seat. If we try and follow the Capitalist model to develop these resources (Private Mining Companies OWN the resource and develop the same to make a profit) all China need to is loosen the restrictions on Exports in order to crash the price thus making it UNPROFITABLE.
We have these resources folks. Just as we once had a manufacturing base. This is "The Free market" and Capitalism at work, in all its splendor.
China is not to blame here . They are playing the game that we created the rules for better then us.
'Amid claims that Beijing is using its rare earths monopoly as a tool of foreign policy, the British Department of Business, Industry and Skills said it was "monitoring" the supply of REEs to ensure China was observing international trade rules.'
------------------
China will also outmaneuver the "West" on international trade rules when the time is right. Without overwhelming military/economic advantages, Western "businessmen" will find that China, and much of the world, will be harder and harder to compete against.
http://www.projectcensored.org/top-stories/articles/10-ecuador-declares-foreign-debt-illegitimate/
The post-WWII Casino is closing soon, and the rules that made the elite of a few countries filthy rich will be changing soon.