Are Rare Earth Metals The Next Oil?

The Next Oil?: Rare Earth Metals -- Elliot Brennan, The Diplomat

Rare earth metals are quickly becoming the next important strategic resource. For many countries in Asia, the stakes are big.

Rare earth metals (REM) are increasingly becoming a critical strategic resource. The 17 elements can be found in most high-tech gadgets, from advanced military technology to mobile phones. China currently holds claim to over 90 percent of the world’s production. As global demand increases, Beijing’s export reductions in recent years have forced high-tech firms to relocate to China and forced other governments to pour money into their exploration and production. An emergent India is among those concerned about China’s control of rare earths. In the past 12 months, the geopolitics of rare earths has become evident. REMs are becoming a strategic resource over which the two emerging giants are competing in Asia. Indeed, one might say rare earths are fast becoming “the next oil.”  

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My Comment: A good review on why rare earths play a vital role in today's modern economy .... and why they are essential to the defense industry.

Are We About To Fight Wars Over Strategic Metals?

Is This The Start Of The Element Wars? -- New Scientist

Warnings have already surfaced about water wars. Now the prospect of "element wars" is raising its ugly head.

Chinese customs officials are blocking shipments to Japan of rare earth elements (REEs) and companies have been informally told not to export them, says The New York Times.

The move puts more pressure on relations already tested by the capture of a Chinese fishing boat captain in disputed waters earlier this month. The captain was finally released on friday, says the Financial Times, but the ban on exports appears to remain in place.

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My Comment: Japan certainly buckled down very quickly when China started to use its monopoly position on rare earths against Japan. It may not have been the main reason why Japan acquiesced to Chinese demands, but I am sure that they thought about it .... they and everyone else in the world.

Exclusive: Boeing Launches Search For Crucial Rare Earth Elements

In the movie 'Avatar,' unobtainium is a rare, precious element that triggers an interspecies war. Credit: Twentieth Century Fox

From Tech News Daily:

Boeing has signed a deal to deploy remote sensing technology to map out U.S. deposits of rare earth elements.

The rare earth family of minerals is the real-life version of the precious element "unobtanium" in James Cameron's movie "Avatar." They are used to make everything from military hardware to humble cell phones, but could soon be in short supply as worldwide demand outstrips mining production in China.

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With China Clamping Down On Rare-Earth Metals, Japanese Manufacturers Devise Clever Alternatives

Rare-Earths China produces the vast majority of the world's rare-earth oxides. Wikimedia Commons

From Popular Science:

If necessity is the mother of invention, maybe China is the wicked stepmother. In an effort to thwart Chinese restrictions on rare-earth metal exports, Japanese manufacturers have developed technology that can make motors without them.

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U.S. Military Supply of Rare Earth Elements Not Secure

From Live Science:

U.S. military technologies such as guided bombs and night vision rely heavily upon rare earth elements supplied by China, and rebuilding an independent U.S. supply chain to wean the country off that foreign dependency could take up to 15 years, according to a new report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO).

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Shortage of Rare Earth Minerals May Cripple U.S. High-Tech, Scientists Warn Congress

Rare Earths Rare earth elements form a crucial part of everyday high-tech products.

From Popular Science:

On the sunnier side, rare earths could power a future generation of clean tech.

All those hybrid and electric cars, wind turbines and similar clean tech innovations may count for nothing if the U.S. cannot secure a supply of rare earth minerals. Ditto for other advanced telecommunications or defense technologies, scientists told a U.S. House subcommittee.

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Congress To Address U.S. Rare Earth Shortage

From Live Science:

Members of Congress introduced a new bill this week that would resurrect the U.S. rare earths supply-chain and create a national stockpile for military and tech industry uses.

Rare earth elements have become irreplaceable in clean tech such as hybrid and electric car motors, high-efficiency light bulbs, solar panels and wind turbines. They also play a key role in defense technologies such as cruise missiles, radar and sonar and precision-guided weapons.

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Precious Metals That Could Save The Planet

The Rare Earth Research Institute is in Baotou City, above,
in the Autonomous Region of Inner Mongolia, China

From The Independent:

Rare earth elements are driving a revolution in low-carbon technology. Cahal Milmo reports on the commodity that has become the new oil.

Baotou was of little interest to the outside world for millennia. When one of the first visitors reached its walls in 1925, it was described as "a little husk of a town in a great hollow shell of mud ramparts". Some 84 years later, this once barren outpost of Inner Mongolia has been transformed into the powerhouse of China's dominance of the market in some of the globe's most sought-after minerals.

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