The United States says it will take "unprecedented actions" to ensure the supply of strategic elements and rare earths, as China mulls possible export controls for materials that are critical to modern technology.
...
In December 2017, Trump called on the Department of Commerce and other US agencies to develop new sources of critical materials to reduce vulnerabilities to supply disruptions, especially from foreign sources.The US report calls for improving supplies "through investment and trade with America's allies," while streamlining the issuance of permits for mining in the United States, including on federal lands.
It also lists a plan to improve mapping and data collection to promote domestic exploration.
And to think only a few short decades ago we were going to war for oil...
(Score: 4, Informative) by Booga1 on Thursday June 06 2019, @02:27AM (11 children)
There it is. The government is literally coming to take your land.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 06 2019, @03:21AM (3 children)
Settle down. They just want to know where the good stuff is. I'm sure property owners will be well compensated.
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Thursday June 06 2019, @03:34AM (2 children)
Kuwait
Afghanistan
Iraq
Vietnam
Cambodia
Guam
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Thursday June 06 2019, @02:34PM (1 child)
All of which are conveniently located outside of the United States of America.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Friday June 07 2019, @03:08AM
They were "well compensated", though...
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 5, Insightful) by PartTimeZombie on Thursday June 06 2019, @03:36AM (6 children)
1: China mines rare earths cheaply
2: Rare earth mines in the west close down due to not being profitable.
3: Your Mr. Trump starts a trade war (which is good, and easy to win)
4: Shit! Everyone realises how important rare earths are! Shit! Panic!
5: Spend a whole boatload of taxpayer's money on setting up rare earth mines. Quick!
6: There's good money to be made here, privatise the mines.
7: China mines rare earths cheaply
8: Rare earth mines in the west close down due to not being profitable.
etc...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 06 2019, @06:52AM
etc... stops right around when the USD == RMB.
(Score: 3, Informative) by FatPhil on Thursday June 06 2019, @08:28AM (1 child)
1) you fucked up mining historically so bad that a lot of the old deposits can no longer be mined, mostly a whole host of safety concerns (it's often impossible to reopen a closed mine, as we Brits know to our chagrin, thanks Thatcher! (And ultimately, thanks the Chicago school, who brainwashed her into her wrongthink without her even knowing it.))
2) you passed some laws pertaining to radioactive materials that make mining many rare earth deposits effectively illegal (this radioactivity is part of (1) - the radioactive pollution was one of the safety concerns) as rare earths are found in the same kinds of places where you find rich Thorium (etc.) deposits.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 4, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Thursday June 06 2019, @12:58PM
Old mines may be more expensive to reopen than virgin territory, but anything is possible with sufficient technology and money.
I recall during the tantalum shortage something about a car dealership somewhere that was built on an old mine that had used tantalum as a processing agent (back when tantalum was worth far less than whatever was being mined at the time...) seems like the ground around those old mines was "severely contaminated" with tantalum, which was its own problem, but when the value of tantalum spiked up it became another kind of problem as bandits were digging out the "contaminated" earth from underneath the buildings at night causing their foundations to collapse.
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2023/06/24/7408365/
(Score: 3, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Thursday June 06 2019, @12:54PM (1 child)
When the fun was winding down in Afghanistan, I recall a "biggest rare earths deposits in the world" story going around about Afghanistan sounding like a possible justification for "stabilizing the region" some more, but it didn't play as well in the New York Times as WMD did...
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2023/06/24/7408365/
(Score: 3, Informative) by Phoenix666 on Thursday June 06 2019, @03:20PM
Somebody mentioned recently Japan had found a rich REE deposit on the seabed. Here's an older story [nature.com] on it.
Dunno if it's easier to mine than the American deposits are, but at least it's not under the control of the Chinese.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by legont on Thursday June 06 2019, @08:10PM
Just to fix your rant a little, California rare earth ores are currently sent to China for processing.
In general, there is almost unlimited supply in the US and Canada, but we decided to outsource the work. It is, mostly, the result of the green goal. Save the planet, you know...
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 06 2019, @03:18AM (3 children)
Like what, stealing strategic supplies on the high seas destined to customers of China, or invading those customers to steal them there?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 06 2019, @03:19AM
Nationalized rare earth mines?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 06 2019, @03:23AM (1 child)
A crash program to develop domestic supplies would be unprecedented.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Thursday June 06 2019, @03:22PM
China itself instituted a crash program to find domestic sources of oil during the Maoist period. One of the original reasons for sending Chinese university students to graduate school in the West was to train them as geologists and petroleum engineers.
It's kind of funny that America would have to do the same with REEs.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 1, Troll) by NateMich on Thursday June 06 2019, @04:20AM (13 children)
"And to think only a few short decades ago we were going to war for oil..."
When was that exactly?
I know you don't actually have an answer, since there isn't one.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 06 2019, @04:51AM (7 children)
It is pretty common knowledge... the petrodollar and all that. It is happening right now in Venezuela.
(Score: 0, Troll) by khallow on Thursday June 06 2019, @10:27AM (6 children)
Well, when Venezuela stops shooting itself in the foot, it can start shooting the US invaders, eh? Funny how so many of these modern wars involve self-inflicted injury.
(Score: 2) by PiMuNu on Thursday June 06 2019, @10:50AM (5 children)
Why invade? What are you paying the CIA for anyway?
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday June 06 2019, @11:30AM (2 children)
(Score: 2) by PiMuNu on Thursday June 06 2019, @11:54AM (1 child)
Fair point. GGP should have said "excercise coercive foreign policy" or some such rather than "war".
(Score: 2, Insightful) by khallow on Thursday June 06 2019, @12:10PM
Which would have been much more accurate, particularly, since the thread started by talking about actual wars rather than metaphorical ones.
Of course, one could come up with a less euphemistic approach, such as "US bullying" or the like and still be reasonably accurate. But calling this a "war" as of the bullets-flying, people-dying sort, when mostly it's modest economic sanctions and big mouths talking off the record, is a bit of nonsense.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Thursday June 06 2019, @03:24PM (1 child)
The CIA sucks. It's nothing more than a jobs program for psychopaths who like to torture for fun & profit.
For actual effectiveness and better after-parties my money would be on the Blackwater guys.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 07 2019, @07:49PM
Could you tell us what makes you think you know anything about blackwater (hasn't been called blackwater in ages) or the CIA?
I've had some contact with both and neither of them bothered me but Erik Prince comes from a family that runs a massive cult designed to siphon money from the poor and desperate. I knew someone from that family who was so desperate to get away she ran away and became a prostitute in france so that they would disown her and forget about her. They forcibly extracted her and threw her into a mental hospital.
(Score: 1, Flamebait) by EJ on Thursday June 06 2019, @05:07AM (1 child)
This is why the last episode of Game of Thrones had one very epic scene.
Commoners are too stupid to be allowed to vote.
I really do think letting our dogs vote would give a better outcome.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 06 2019, @07:09AM
No, it is because the elite fear the will of the people. That is why they spread lies and deceit, trying to convince you that you can not live without their heel on your throat.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 06 2019, @05:15AM (1 child)
I understand it may have been before your birth, but in 2003 we invaded Iraq to "kick their ass and take their gas".
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday June 06 2019, @10:28AM
I assume you're quoting Abraham Lincoln there. He had a way with words.
(Score: 3, Informative) by FatPhil on Thursday June 06 2019, @07:55AM
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 5, Interesting) by FatPhil on Thursday June 06 2019, @08:15AM (6 children)
Why? It's not because we have a huge supply of them ourselves. We had some - our north east was a great source of ores for the empire during Soviet times, but those are heavily depleted and polluted now. Simple - we're processing and manufacturing supplies that come from countries like ... nah, I'll let you guess ... ready? ... written it down? ... OK, here goes ... China! Microeconomics is just a set of equilibria - you try to push one thing, other things move to compensate, and you don't achieve what you originally intended. Congratulations, pat yourself on the back and award yourself and your economic advisors "I'm useless at the job I was appointed for" awards.
First:
Trump announces tariffs against China.
Next, almost simultaniously:
Chinese exports to the US drop by billions.
Chinese exports to Vietnam jump by billions.
Vietnamese exports to the US jump by billions.
Not just Vietnam - Taiwan too, and even Mexico. All told, pretty much all of the changes in the trade deficit are easily explicable this way.
Good for Vietnam, good for Taiwan, good for Mexico, and back to rare earths, good for Estonia. Good for the US's allies! Bad for efficiency, having extra middle-men in the loop. Who pays for that inefficiency? You know the answer to that, it's the same people who would have to pay the tariff if they insisted on not "cheating". (Handy hint to any Trumps reading - it's not China.)
Oh - look at the market prices for rare earths - they've not blipped at all. I mean in the time Gold changed +3% (on just rumours that a fed rate drop might be considered), vanadium and erbium, and the one beginning with pr that I can't spell, and molybdenum, and all the rest of them changed 0.00%. That's how much impact this blustering really has.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 06 2019, @01:01PM (1 child)
You assume the purpose of the blustering isn't to create a narrative like "trade war suppresses stock prices". Then the people involved in the blustering can pump the market at will by "ending" it.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Friday June 07 2019, @10:30AM
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 06 2019, @02:59PM
Also, the quality of zerohedge has dropped by so much the last few years. Not just the comments but the articles are getting dumber and dumber.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Thursday June 06 2019, @03:27PM (2 children)
How does one come by a flat in Tallinn, as a non-Estonian? Out of curiosity.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 06 2019, @10:31PM
Go for the hookers and cocaine and stay for... The hookers and cocaine. FatPhil amirite?
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Friday June 07 2019, @10:21AM
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 1) by sfm on Friday June 07 2019, @03:52PM
Significant deposits of rare earth elements exist in the US, but mining is
thwarted by the presence of Thorium in the mix.
http://www.mining.com/web/us-lost-plot-rare-earths/ [mining.com]
Change the laws on Thorium and more mines will be producing these
needed elements