by Jack Lee
What does yttrium, thorium, neodymium, boron and samarium have in common with you? Don’t know? Well, don’t feel too bad, it’s likely that 98% of us have never heard of these rare earth compounds before. They’re found in the periodic table of elements under lanthanides and we use these lanthanides in cell phones, computers and cars and that’s just for starters. The Toyota Prius uses more rare earth than any other car in the world. We’re absolutely dependant on these metals for so many critical things and one country controls 90% of the rare earth exports and its not us, it’s China.
There was a time when we produced about 10% of the worlds supply of rare earth metals and we had plenty on hand for our own home use. That was until about a decade ago when we felt it would be better to [outsource] the production. Mining is a dirty business and refineries are not very popular either, just look at all the regulations we impose on both of them! So, this business was a great candidate for outsourcing, its just too bad we had to turn to China. But, they produced the needed metals cheaper for a time and they had over-abundance of the stuff, in theory a win-win. So by dropping out we let China become the world’s sole suppliers of rare earth metals and all was well until our politics clatshed with theirs. Now China has decided to roll back production, allegedly until they have a chance to review some environmental concerns (choke).
This has made the rare earth metals, well, er,… rare (and expensive)! The lanthanides have been jokingly called unobtainium thanks to China’s penury production of the stuff. Japan has been cut off due to a territorial dispute and to flex their muscle a bit further, the Chinese have decided to boycott shipments to U.S. until we come around to their way of thinking on certain trade policies currently in dispute.
The U.S. does have lanthanides and we can mine them, albeit not in the quantity of China. To ramp up our mining and refinery production will take at least two more years and possibly three, maybe longer if the EPA gets involved. Meanwhile China controls the market and to some extent….us. We are virtually at their mercy for the present time. You know it’s going to cost us dearly to get the Chinese to resume exporting to us…I wonder what concessions we’ll have to make?
Now this is bad, I admit, but you haven’t heard the worst yet. So fasten your seat belts, because this next bit of news is going to send you into orbit and cause you to speak in rapid fire expletives.
There is a source of these “unobtanium metals” beyond China and the US…they’ve been recently discovered in Afghanistan! Lucky for us right? Hang on…so the Afghanistan government under the control of our dearest, best friend, Mohamed Karzai has negotiated a deal with Americ…, no, actually that would be with the Chinese government for [exclusive] rights to mine rare earth for processing back in China. Yes, exclusive rights and we’re completely shut out.
In effect NATO forces and that means our own U.S. soldiers are protecting the Chinese mining interests in Afghanistan. We’re fighting and dying only to be screwed over by an ungrateful Afghan government. This happened on President Obama’s watch and virtually right under our collective noses, yet it’s completely ignored by our government as if it really never happened! Until today even our own fast-asleep watchdog media missed this one. The BBC broke this story and we picked it up before anyone else in the mainstream media, but lets give it a few days to simmer and see what happens.
I think Obama owes us some answers on this deal, don’t you?
