China corners the global market for rare earth metals...in other words...

[annarborgator]

...why the "green" movement probably won't save the American economy (guess we better start looking for NEW new technologies??)

The robust international trade in illegally mined, quota-busting rare-earth metals highlights China's near monopoly on the raw materials for environmental technology - a 95 per cent dominance of world supply that is likely to become more widely noticed as China tightens its grip.

The weight and magnetic properties of rare-earth metals have made them important for wind turbines, essential to hybrid cars, and indispensable if the world ever hopes to covert to fully electric vehicles.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/business/story/0,28124,25550073-5017996,00.html

[annarborgator]

Uranium is a classic example. The uranium fuel represents just 3% of the cost of producing nuclear energy. These things are essential. You cannot have the larger product without them. In the case of rare earth oxides, we're looking at a situation where the Obama Administration would like to see clean energy replace gasoline-based energy in transportation fuel. The Chinese are thinking along similar lines because they don't want to be dependent on foreign oil supplies any more than the United States does. Rare earth oxides go into these super magnets that are a key part of these hybrid and electric cars. The Japanese, the Europeans, and North American carmakers would like to commercialize the production of hybrid cars, but they are afraid to do so because all the rare earths right now come out of China. And China has said "we would like all the manufacturing to be done in China and we'll sell it to the rest of the world." Well, that puts everybody at the mercy of China. So now there's a scramble afoot to look for these deposits outside of China and never mind that China could flood the market with their rare earth oxides. The end users are thinking we need to have security of supply for these rare earth oxides so we're not at the mercy of political machinations by a country like China.



Tantalum is another metal where it's a key input in cell phone capacitors. The supply has come only from a few mines, all of which are now shut down as part of the strategy to get the processors to allow a price increase.

http://news.goldseek.com/GoldSeek/1243955100.php

[DocZaius]

That's interesting.

[MinGator]

and remind me again who holds a whole lot of our country's debt??

I can see the headlines in a newspaper in the future...."No War For Batteries!"