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China issues rare earth regulations to further protect domestic supply (www.reuters.com)

submitted 1 month ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

And just to remind people. "Rare Earth" materials aren't actually rare. They're common. However, they are distributed in very very low concentrations, so you have to go throw mountains worth of material to extract measurable amounts of Rare Earth materials. This is typically energy intensive and ecologically destructive, which in most of the work equals "expensive" which is why the nations of the world have been happy to shut down their own Rare Earth extractions facilities any paying China to destroy its ecology instead.

China is free to set up its restrictions on exports. Other nations are free to restart their own extraction operations (with the costs that come with it).

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Well, China hasn't been the only producer in recent decades.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

That is a true statement. However, as the article points out they produce 90% of the world's supply of Rare Earth materials.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Sales aren't everything. China has ~44M Metric Tons of REE reserves, Vietnam 22M, Russia 21M, Brazil 21M, India 6.9M, Australia 4.2M, USA 2.4M, Greenland 1.5M.

However, specific metals out of the 17 have wildly different graphs, such as Palladium commonly used in military armored plating being produced mostly in Russia and South Africa. USA produces many times over as much Palladium as China reports.

If China's domestic use concerns are actually for military use then that's troublesome because the metals they have are more useful for automation and electronics than anything else.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Palladium

since when is Palladium a REE?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

You're right mb, I was confusing it with another element starting with P, like Pr or Pm, lol

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago

This effectively makes all minerals the state's property and prevents commerce with other nations who specialize in heavy machinery or electronics including: USA, UK, EU, SK, and Japan.