China limiting exports of rare earth minerals - Detroit Times

[properchopper]

To keep production of, among other things, batteries and electronic products in China, limiting exports of rare earth minerals is being done to encourage tech companies to shift their location to China.

http://www.detroitnews.com/print/article/20120313/AUTO01/203130388/White-House-challenges-China-rare-earth-minerals-export-limits

[rearwheelin]

We should do the same with green energy and just start exporting all our enviro regulatory crap to everyone ! Can't wait for Obama to leave ! What a joke he is

[mappo]

We should do the same with green energy and just start exporting all our enviro regulatory crap to everyone ! Can't wait for Obama to leave ! What a joke he is

These Days, everything is Obama's fault.

[siberianhusky]

Sorry Bush is the one who allowed the US rare earth mines to all close down. The last one, Mountain Pass in California moved it's entire operation to China in 2006! I'm not much of an Obama fan but I still fail to understand how this could possibly be his fault, just another piece of BS he inherited from the previous administration that he is now being blamed for. Easy to blame the guy who is left holding the bag!
Fact is when China undercut world prices Bush did nothing to protect the American industry at all. He just let it all go to China.

[rearwheelin]

Aren't mines a private industry ? Atleast we still have our mines for the future . I have no problems with letting china dig up there land in the meantime and would we stand to get a better price in the future for our material ? There has been more money made on iPhone stock than rare earth materials...... Just a sign of times, things shift from on country to the next I guess in order to balance trade deficits I gues..... Who really know why

[Fluid]

As usual, inflamatory threads like this are behind the times - and a bit inaccurate. From December 2010:

North America's largest rare earth mine--and the only one in the United States--will finally re-open for business by the end of the year after an eight-year hiatus. The re-opening is prompted, largely, by stiff competition from China, the world's leading supplier and exporter of rare earth metals. The mine is located in Mountain Pass, California, and is owned by Molycorp Minerals; the re-opening is made possible by a capital partnership with the Japanese firm, the Sumitomo Corporation....The focus, as expressed by Molycorp CEO Mark Smith, is on meeting domestic demand in the United States, then demand from Japan and Europe. As part of the co-financing from Sumitomo, however, Molycorp is expected to initially supply Sumitomo and Mitsubishi, in addition to U.S-based customers.

Today:
Freshly crushed rare earth ore is now being produced by Molycorp's Project Phoenix facility.
The project remains on an accelerated schedule to reach a Phase 1 production rate by the end of Q3 2012.





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[rearwheelin]

Good deal

[siberianhusky]

So nothing available until the 3rd quarter of 2012? Then China is currently still the ONLY producer on the market. In six months time is not now or a couple years ago when China began to restrict exports.