China issues tougher rare earth export rules (12-11-10) — Agence France Presse — BEIJING – China has said it has toughened rare earth export rules to allow only producers that meet environmental protection laws and international standards to ship the precious elements out of the country.
The rules are Beijing’s latest move to rein in rare earths exports, amid complaints from foreign high-tech producers that the country is restricting shipments of the elements, used in everything from iPods to cars.
China has a near-global monopoly in rare earths — last year, it produced 97 percent of world supply. It has denied any embargo on shipments, including to Japan, amid a diplomatic row between the Asian neighbours.
Beijing will “strictly regulate rare earth exporters”, according to rules published by the commerce ministry on Thursday.
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Survey Shows U.S. Has Abundant Rare Earth Supplies (24-11-10) — Environmental News Network — In the headlines lately has been news of China’s monopoly of rare earth elements (REE), adding to China’s growing clout. It would increase their leverage should they choose to reduce exports, causing REE prices to soar.
The United States imports almost all of its REE from China, putting it in a position of geopolitical weakness. In light of this circumstance, the US Geological Survey (USGS) has conducted a study to map out the presence of REE found domestically. It turns out that rare earth elements in the United States are not so rare.
Rare earth elements are a group of 17 metallic elements that are essential for high technology applications. They all have unique electrical, optical, and thermal properties that distinguish them from more common minerals. REE are composed of Scandium (#21 on the periodic table, Yttrium (#39), and lanthanides (#57-71) which include Lanthanum, Promethium, and Europium.
Since most people are not geologists or high-tech engineers, these elements are unfamiliar. Yet without them, many of our current technologies would not exist, such as lasers, color TVs, certain computer components and batteries, and long-distance fiber optic cables. Newer technologies that require them include electric vehicles and photo-voltaic cells.
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Russia holds more rare earth reserves than China (08-12-10) — MOSCOW (Commodity Online) : China’s domination over its huge stockpiles of rare earths have always created imbalances of the commodity’s global trade.
World’s largest country, Russia has 27.9 million metric tons of rare earths under the A+B+C1 classification, according to country’s only exporter of the rare-earth minerals, Polyfer Handels.
The reserves will be higher than that of China’s 27-million-ton estimate assigned to China by Japan’s Trade Ministry agency JOGMEC last year.
Japan, the biggest importer of rare earths, put the reserves of Russia and other former Soviet countries at about 19 million tons.
Realpolitik.tv
