A small article this past week in Science is of some note.
It states:
This month, China announced that it will cut exports this year of rare-earth elements (REE) by 40%, leaving demand outside China exceeding the supply for the first time ever. Combined with Chinese export tariffs of 10% to 25%, the policy could ground fledgling efforts to build clean-energy industries in the United States and other Western countries...
China currently produces more than 97% of all rare earths, a group of 17 elements consisting of scandium, yttrium, and the 15 lanthanides. They are vital for a host of electronics and green-energy technologies, and their use is expected to triple between 2000 and 2014, topping 200,000 metric tons. But despite rising global demand, China has focused increasingly on domestic needs...
To counter the advantages enjoyed by Chinese companies, U.S. companies that make magnets and other high-tech components want Congress to set up loan guarantees to back domestic mining, processing, refining, purification, and metals production of rare earths. Bills have been introduced in both houses, but no action is expected in the current session.
This is not a problem just for electric cars...it is a defense issue and it seems that the current administration is truly lacking in its understanding of the strategic importance of this issue.
The US has substantial rare earth deposits, the ones shown above are from New Jersey for example, yet the mines have all been closed due to environmental reasons. Apparently it was fine to despoil China yet not the US. The rooster has come home to roost.
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