China issues rare earth regulations to further protect domestic supply By Reuters:
China has unveiled a list of rare earth regulations aimed at protecting supplies in the name of national security, laying out rules on the mining, smelting and trade in the critical materials used to make products from magnets in electric vehicles to consumer electronics.
The regulations, issued by the State Council or cabinet on Saturday, say rare earth resources belong to the state, and that the government will oversee the development of the industry around rare earths - a group of 17 minerals of which China has in recent years become the world's dominant producer, accounting for nearly 90% of global refined output.
Their global industrial significance is such that under a law that entered into force in May the EU set ambitious 2030 targets for domestic production of minerals crucial in the green transition - particularly rare earths due to their use in permanent magnets that power motors in EVs and wind energy.
EU demand is forecast to soar sixfold in the decade to 2030 and sevenfold by 2050.
The new Chinese regulations, which will take effect on Oct. 1, say the State Council will establish a rare earth product traceability information system.
Enterprises in rare earth mining, smelting and separation, and the export of rare earth products, shall establish a product flow record system, shall "truthfully" record the flow, and shall enter it into the traceability system, the State Council said.
China already last year introduced restrictions on exports of the elements germanium and gallium, used widely in the chip-making sector, citing the need to protect national security and interests.
It also banned the export of technology to make rare earth magnets, in addition to imposing a ban on technology to extract and separate rare earths.
(Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 03 2024, @10:56AM
Here's hoping that this backfires on China. See, for example recent story,
https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=24/06/27/0848239 [soylentnews.org]
"AI Designs Radical Magnet Free of Rare-Earth Metals in Just 3 Months"
If the new magnets are a suitable replacement, all China will have left is a big environmental mess from the rare earth mining and refining operations (similar environmental problems are also found in other countries that used to mine these things...before environmental regulations made it more expensive).
(Score: 5, Insightful) by SomeRandomGeek on Wednesday July 03 2024, @03:25PM (2 children)
The irony here is that, despite their name, rare earths are actually very common. The reason that China is such a dominant producer is that extracting them is extremely dirty and labor intensive. And the Chinese economy has a relative advantage at doing dirty labor intensive things.
What the Chinese government is doing now, signaling that they can step in and screw with the supply for political purposes, is just about the worst thing they could do for their local industry. Everyone who is currently buying from them because they are cheapest is now thinking "A reliable supply is more important to me than a low price. China is no longer a reliable supplier, so I'd better find one that is reliable."
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday July 03 2024, @07:00PM
>just about the worst thing they could do for their local industry.
I don't know about the _worst_... around here, time was any yokel with a backhoe and a dump truck could start a "borrow pit" on any land the landowner gave permission for it. Dig as deep as they wanted and sell what came out. Then neighbors started complaining about their land collapsing into the pits, so there were some setback regulations put in place. Then folks figured out that all this dump truck traffic was screwing up the roads... and then the phosphate miners came to town, stripping so much earth they screwed up the surface streams...
I seem to remember during the 1990s tantalum frenzy that some enterprising far easterners figured out that a local car dealership was built on an old tin mine and that the earth under the office building was "contaminated" with tantalum that was used in the tin mining process, so they extracted a lot of this "tantalum rich ore" from under the building in the night, eventually causing it to collapse....
Some restraint and oversight in the extraction of natural resources is absolutely called for. If China is having a boom in "rare earths" extraction, it's better they get into the habit of prescribing what is and is not acceptable before unacceptable damage is done.
🌻🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by corey on Thursday July 04 2024, @12:25AM
To be fair though, a lot of western governments and companies have already been transitioning to other non Chinese suppliers due to political risk. Which has now been realised. I guess this will speed up that process.
This reminds me of the US govt restricting high end GPUs to China; now they’re going to make their own.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by fraxinus-tree on Wednesday July 03 2024, @06:25PM
Technology is done with minerals. I control the minerals, I control the technology. Clever, isn't it? They should have asked their Russian friends first.
There is one more plausible explanation: China is desperately trying to stop aggravating their environmental mess. In contrast with the daily fscking their people's lives, the government is actually incapable of regulating anything.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday July 03 2024, @06:56PM (1 child)
I'm glad you asked. This article explains why it matters to us. https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18789/us-strategic-minerals [gatestoneinstitute.org] The US has been busy selling off it's strategic resources (Hillary and uranium deposits, anyone?) for decades. Today, we have few resources, and suddenly find ourselves dependent on China and others. We've lost the battle for hearts and minds in Africa (if we ever actually tried), so China is steadily gaining access to African resources, while we lose access. We have no access to Asian resources, and we are beginning to lose access in South America. Sadly, we've spent most of the last century making enemies around the world, while China has spent the past 40 years or more making friends.
This is just one more way in which the US is squandering our great-great-great grandchildren's inheritance.
“I have become friends with many school shooters” - Tampon Tim Walz
(Score: 3, Insightful) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday July 03 2024, @07:02PM
> Sadly, we've spent most of the last century making enemies around the world
It's lonely at the top, just ask Britain, and France before them.
You would think we would have learned from that history, but sadly... we seem doomed to outdo our global domination fore-bearers.
🌻🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by corey on Thursday July 04 2024, @12:28AM
I read this initially as “China Issues rare, Earth Regulations to Further Protect Domestic Supply”.
I thought they were going to protect the ecosystem! How silly was I.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Thursday July 04 2024, @03:11PM
It's China, so the quote marks means "pay the correct bribes".
The story isn't about regulation it's really about increased taxation (informal bribery taxation)
They don't operate under western standards, not being a western culture.
The new required records will be as real as the fake ICs and fake capacitors shipped every day.