China is now hinting at the ultimate tariff on rare earth minerals. How devastating could it be on the U.S. economy? Rare earth metals are mostly used in the manufacture of technology and defence products and electric vehicles.. The most abundant rare earth elements are cerium, yttrium, lanthanum and neodymium. They have average crustal abundances that are similar to commonly used industrial metals such as chromium, nickel, zinc, molybdenum, tin, tungsten, and lead
The U.S. has 1.4 million metric tons in rare earth mine reserves, 93 times the nation’s output last year, according to data from the U.S. Geological Service website. The country’s only producer, MP Materials, has been shipping all its output from the Mountain Pass mine in California to China because there is currently no refining capacity available to handle its output anywhere else in the world, its biggest shareholder said. “As with our energy security, the Trump administration is dedicated to ensuring that we are never held hostage to foreign powers for the natural resources critical to our national security and economic growth,” Interior Secretary David Bernhardt said in a separate statement. “The department will work expeditiously to implement the president’s strategy from streamlining the permitting process to locating domestic supplies of minerals.” MORE HERE
@Craig Swanson I thought Australia had large deposits of rare earth minerals. Alaska does as well, but the environmentalists won't let many of them be developed. China doesn't have that problem....
As far as Europe is concerned the trade war is beginning to make itself felt. Due to that US decision, the once hugely popular Huawei cell phones are becoming a non-seller in Germany. I own one of those, too. Even Huawei's high-end P line is being sold off at discount grocery stores like Aldi next week. T-Mobile's parent company Telekom has instructed all its employees not to buy Huwaei smartphones as company cell phones any more. Huawei smartphones are on the brink of being unmarketable. Consumers doubt that Huawei will be able to provide its own OS updates for Android cell phones as announced which makes the phones unusable for banking and other applications. So you can toss it in the trash. All that shows that US government decisions have an enormous impact on Europe and probably also on other parts of the world. It also shows one more time how vulnerable and fragile the European and German economy is and that the old chestnut when America sneezes, the world catches a cold ...is still so true.
Yes @Don Alaska. Australia has large supplies of Rare Earth Elements, both heavy and light, with several ASX listed companies having sizeable, rich, world class, deposits totalling around 1/3rd of the world's known resources. China has by far the worlds largest deposits.
I don't believe what my own government tells me, so I am certainly not going to take the word of the Chinese government.