The Truth Behind The US Buying Rare Earths In China

Recently,

The 17 rare earth elements that have been of interest to scientists and engineers have become one of the hottest topics in the world.

The United States "New York Times" 20 days broke the news that "China is quietly stopping exports to the United States and Europe", causing a panic in the west, the possibility of being strangled by China's neck quickly spread.

In fact, as early as October 6th, Premier Wen Jiabao of the State Council of China, when attending the Sixth China EU business summit, had made it clear that China did not blockade nor blockade, but China's control of rare earths was necessary.

But the US side is still clamoring for it. The political commentary website, Sharon, even claims that it is "China's insane blockade of rare earth elements in the United States". "If it is true, China's actions are staggering. Under the current political climate of the US China relationship, it is hard to imagine a more provocative gesture than this."

China's export of resources

Canadian scholar: the United States launched the war in Afghanistan for the purpose of rare earths.

As early as September 2009, Walter Dezso, a Canadian future scholar, business development consultant and lecturer at University of Toronto, pointed out in his website "smart economics" that the real purpose of the US war in Afghanistan is actually to control Afghanistan's rare earth resources.

"In 1970s, why did the former Soviet Union send troops and tanks into Afghanistan? There were only barren mountains and corridors, which were called forgotten lands by many Soviet soldiers returning to China.

After entering the twenty-first Century, why did the United States, Canada, Britain and other NATO countries rush to send their soldiers to Afghanistan? The official answer may be Taliban, terrorists, drug trafficking, poppy and its very close proximity to nuclear weapons in Pakistan. In fact, privately, they are looking at some valuable resources that haven't been exploited in Afghanistan, such as lithium, cesium, tantalum and niobium, and they are looking at some valuable resources that haven't been exploited in Afghanistan, such as lithium, cesium, tantalum, niobium, and the 17 metal elements known as dilute elements.

Dezso pointed out that the strategic importance of metals in the 2009 issue of the Journal of the American Science Association is rhodium, molybdenum, platinum, lithium, and rare earth metals, of which lithium and rare earth metals are rich in Afghanistan.

Coincidentally, Dezso also found a report on Afghanistan's mineral resources on the British geological survey website, pointing out: "Afghanistan has abundant rare earth metal deposits.

Since the Soviet Union's withdrawal, these mines have never been systematically exploited, and many of the mining areas that have been discovered need further investigation and exploration. "

A report on Afghanistan's mineral resources left by the Soviet Union has made The Pentagon a treasure.

In June 2010, a New York Times report confirmed that Dezso's speculation was not nonsense.

The report quoted a memorandum from the US The Pentagon saying that the exploration team composed of US defense officials and geologists found that there are large quantities of metal deposits including lithium, iron, cobalt, gold, copper, niobium and rare earth in Afghanistan, worth at least US $908 billion 900 million, of which the value of rare earth ore is about US $7 billion 400 million.

According to the New York Times, geologists who sent to Afghanistan to participate in reconstruction projects in 2004 found some geological charts and data in the library of the Afghanistan Geological Exploration Bureau in Kabul.

Statistics show that there may be a lot of mineral resources in Afghanistan.

American geologists later found that these data were collected by Soviet experts in 1980s when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan.

But after the withdrawal of the Soviet Union, the information was ignored.

In 2009, the United States Department of defense sent a batch of data to the special operations team of Iraq's business development mission.

The special action group invited geological experts from the United States to search for mineral deposits based on previous exploration data and notified us Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Afghan President Karzai.

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Afghanistan's rare earth: makes the United States salivate but can not eat the fat in the mouth.

However, the US side's excitement about the discovery did not last long.

In August this year, Natalia Hearn, President of the US rare earth and materials company, pointed out that the $1 billion mineral reserves discovered in Afghanistan can not change the shortage of rare earth metals in the United States and North America. "Even in a country with advanced mining facilities, extracting rare earth metals is also very difficult.

In Afghanistan, a country with a gross national product of only $12 billion, there is no such facility, nor is it possible to establish such facilities in the near future.

It may take a whole generation to produce the rare earth metals needed to maintain the competitiveness of the United States in aviation, pportation, shipping and other industries. "

Indeed, Afghanistan does not only have no mining enterprises, nor even independent industries.

In the capital city of Kabul, there is no independent enterprise except a factory that produces matches.

The exploitation of huge mineral resources must depend on international enterprises as well.

But in the current bad security situation, foreign companies must calculate the economic accounts before they get to muddy water.

According to Hedrick, a rare earth expert at the US Geological Survey, the cost of mining a rare earth mine and establishing a purification plant is between $5 billion and $10 billion.

In addition, a large amount of capital needs to be invested in building infrastructure such as roads and railways for pport to the outside world.

Even if a foreign company is willing to "bite the bullet" and calculate whether the economic accounts can be profitable, it is still uncertain.

Many of these deposits are located in the eastern and southern regions bordering Pakistan. Quite a few of them are in the control area of Taliban. It is difficult to calculate the cost to ensure safety.

What kind of imported rare earth does the United States store in Japan?

In fact, there are quite a few reserves of rare earth minerals in the United States.

According to the article in BusinessWeek, the United States is the second largest country in the world with rare earth resources, second only to China.

In addition, the United States has seized the rare earth minerals in other countries in the form of long-term contracts.

Thus, there is no shortage of rare earth resources in the United States.

On the other hand, China has produced 120 thousand tons of rare earth products in the past 09 years, accounting for 97% of the world's total.

But in fact, China's rare-earth reserves account for only 36% of the world's total 99 million tons of reserves.

However, due to lack of control, China's rare earth resources have been in the predicament of mining at a low price and selling at a low price for a long time, and suppliers are killing each other, so that foreign purchasers can buy them at "cabbage prices".

In this situation, the United States, Japan and other countries not only spend the least money, get the most precious "rare earth", and imported rare earth is not used, but for storage.

It is reported that at present, 83% of Japan's rare earth comes from China, but apart from their use, they are more likely to import rare earth from China into submarine storage. At present, the stock is enough for Japan to use for at least 20 years.

The United States also closed the largest domestic rare earth ore in 1997 and imported rare earth from China.

The hidden danger is obvious: once China's rare earth is drying up and its domestic industry is stagnant, foreign countries still have enough reserves to counter China.

In order to reverse the unfavorable situation, China began to gradually reduce the export of rare earth products in 2006, and strive to win the right to speak rare earth. But the western countries still insist on buying and selling the same thing to China.

There are signs that the west is planning to unite to put pressure on China. The Japanese ambassador to China has convened a multinational ambassador to close business. The United States threatened to bring the rare earth issue to next month's summit of the group of twenty. Germany also intervened to seek help from the WTO and the European Commission.

The Chinese government is not buying it.

As a Chinese strategic scholar has said, more than 100 years ago, the West could use guns to force China to buy opium, but now it is no longer the time to rush to China to grab rare earth.

The West denouncing China on rare earth issues only shows that the world has changed and China has changed.

China's rare earth Patriot missile is blind.

The US political arena is so concerned about the problem of rare earth because it is widely used in military affairs.

It can be said that no rare earth can make all kinds of high-tech weapons and equipment.

For example, the Patriot missile can precisely intercept incoming missiles, thanks to the use of about 4 kilograms of samarium cobalt magnets and NdFeB magnets in the guidance system for electron beam focusing. The Raptor fighter can achieve supersonic cruise function, relying on powerful engines made of special rare earth materials and light and solid fuselage. The reconnaissance, surveillance and early warning equipment developed by the United States has also benefited from the creation of rare earth technology.

In addition, advanced equipment such as electromagnetic interference, mine detection, satellite communication and so on can not be separated from the application of rare earth products.

The report of the Government Accountability Office of the US Congress shows that a large number of rare metals in the US weapon system come from China.

For example, samarium in the "Abrams" tank navigation system is purchased from China; the hybrid electric drive system used by the DDG-51 destroyer uses neodymium magnet purchased from China; the SPY-1 radar of the Aegis system also uses samarium cobalt magnet made of metallic samarium in China.

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Pale from the rare earth mobile color TV.

Rare earth metals exist almost every family in the twenty-first Century, and they are used as high-tech products all over the world.

Consumers may not know that their computer hard drives, plasma flat screen televisions and smart phones contain rare earth elements.

For example, europium (Eu) can make the TV display display a brilliant red and is also used to make energy-saving LED lamps. Neodymium (Nd) can be used to make the most powerful magnet.

Green technology is also highly dependent on rare earth metals.

Toyota Auto Body Co, for example, consumes 7500 tons of lanthanum and 1000 tons of neodymium per year for the launch of hybrid vehicles.

Sustainable energy development also needs them, such as wind turbines and hybrid electric vehicle batteries, military night vision goggles, modern warfare applications of 41.810,1.09,2.68% and guided missiles.

Abundant reserves, "zero exploitation" in US and Russia

At present, the world's recoverable rare earth mines are mainly concentrated in China, the United States, India, Russia, South Africa, Australia, Canada, Egypt and some other countries.

But according to LiveScience's report, the excavation of rare earth elements in the United States, Australia, Canada and South Africa will be the fastest in 2014.

China's rare earth resources are extremely rich and its distribution is very reasonable.

In 2009, China's rare earth reserves amounted to 36 million tons, accounting for 36% of the world's total, while its output was 120 thousand tons, accounting for 97% of world output.

The United States ranks first in the world in rare earth consumption, but there is no processing plant.

In 2009, the United States accounted for 13 million tons of rare earth reserves, accounting for 13% of the world's total output.

India's rare earth reserves in 2009 accounted for 3 million 100 thousand tons, accounting for 3% of the world's total output, accounting for 2700 tons, accounting for 2% of the world's total.

India's most famous rare earth ore "trafco" deposit accounts for about half of the world's 1911~1945 deposits, and is still an important source of production.

Russia's rare earth reserves in 2009 accounted for 19 million tons, accounting for 19% of the world's total output.

Japan's annual imports of rare earth are about 30 thousand tons, and its output is zero.