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posted by cmn32480 on Wednesday September 02 2015, @09:53PM   Printer-friendly
from the use-common-earths-instead dept.

MOUNTAIN PASS >> The only rare earth mining and processing plant in the Western Hemisphere is closing and virtually all of its nearly 500 person workforce is expected to be let go. Officials from Greenwood Village, Colorado-basedMolycorp, said earlier this week they will transition their massive San Bernardino County facility to a "care and maintenance" mode while it plans to continue serving its rare earth oxide customers via its production facilities in Estonia and China.
...
Half a decade ago China produced some 97 per cent of the world's supply of rare earths. They thought it would be a cute idea to try and flex the monopolistic power they had. Not so much to try and get more for the raw materials: no, they wanted people to move rare earth-consuming businesses into China. There were export restrictions and high export tariffs on the raw materials but none at all on things that were made using them inside China and then exported.

So, for example, there's a subsidiary of Siemens out there that makes the lutetium crystals which power MRI machines. If you can't get that Lu (and that one factory consumes perhaps 90 per cent of global production) then you'd better move the factory to where you can, eh? Into China, that is. Certainly one company making the mercury vapour charges for light bulbs (which are doped with rare earths (REs) to change the spectrum of light from them), the world's largest producer of them by far, seriously considered restarting the factory inside China.

What happened then is the fun bit. The rise in the RE prices this caused meant that Molycorp and Lynas were able to gain financing to respectively reopen, and open for the first time, their mines. Not only that but they could do something vastly more expensive: set up the processing plants needed to do the complex separation of each RE from the others.

The point of the article is that China's attempt to abuse their monopoly power in rare earths has eroded their monopoly power. But the question of the strategic vulnerability that represents has not been answered...


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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Gravis on Wednesday September 02 2015, @10:53PM

    by Gravis (4596) on Wednesday September 02 2015, @10:53PM (#231478)

    One thing that is clear is that RE metals are useful in anything that is electric and moves. What we should do is make recycling these metals a legal requirement. This way we don't need to dig up more of the Earth than we have to and profits stay in our own economy. If it costs more to recycle than to get new RE metals then all new RE metal shipments should be taxed to subsidize the recycling.

    The point isn't to put a burden on suppliers of RE metals, it's to work toward a closed loop system where we dont need to dig up more RE metals.

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  • (Score: 0, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 02 2015, @11:26PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 02 2015, @11:26PM (#231484)

    Not that I'm against this, but this idea gets really out of hand really quick. Here's just a small bucket list.

    • Who's going to pay to collect the e-waste for recycling? It's not going to get to the plant by itself.
    • Who's going to pay to sort it? It's not all going to contain materials we can recycle.
    • Who's going to pay to prep it? It's not all going to be in a state that can be recycled without removing what can't.
    • Who's going to deal with the recycling process' waste? The stuff you don't hear about when you buy that item made from recycled materials.
    • Who's going to use the recycled product anyway? No sense if what is produced is worthless for use.
    • (Score: 3, Touché) by Gravis on Thursday September 03 2015, @01:48AM

      by Gravis (4596) on Thursday September 03 2015, @01:48AM (#231517)

      illiterate AC? shocking!

      here's the part that went over your head!

      all new RE metal shipments should be taxed to subsidize the recycling.

      so there, it's the tax on new shipments of RE that provides the money for the recycling, you fucktard.

      • (Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 03 2015, @09:04PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 03 2015, @09:04PM (#231971)

        Uh... illiterate AC fucktard here...

        all new RE metal shipments should be taxed to subsidize the recycling.

        so there, it's the tax on new shipments of RE that provides the money for the recycling, you fucktard.

        Do you honestly think that further taxing the imports of materials will provide ample funding to fund the recycling effort? It wouldn't even be a drop in the bucket. Additional funding would be needed. I ducked a bad argument not let it fly over my head. All you did was reveal your autonomic subconscious reflex to be a rude jerk.

        And who really pays taxes anyway? Certainly not the companies that would be importing RE materials. They increase their prices and "pay" the taxes. Certainly not the companies that would be using RE materials. They increase the prices on their products to account for the increase in price of materials. The buyer has to buy the product marked up by the importer and the manufacturer and is truly paying the taxes.

  • (Score: 2) by tibman on Thursday September 03 2015, @01:09AM

    by tibman (134) Subscriber Badge on Thursday September 03 2015, @01:09AM (#231508)

    I'd settle for more people to recycle the common stuff: glass, metal, paper, and plastic.

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    • (Score: 3, Interesting) by Gravis on Thursday September 03 2015, @01:44AM

      by Gravis (4596) on Thursday September 03 2015, @01:44AM (#231515)

      people recycle a lot. the problem occurs with companies that accept the material to be recycled. instead of recycling it themselves, they pay another company to take it overseas to be recycled... but it never makes it there because it gets dumped in the ocean.