http://www.cnn.com/2012/03/13/world/asia/china-rare-earths-case/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

So, what's your thoughts on this? China claims its limiting mining of this stuff over environmental concerns, the US says they're just hoarding it for themselves.

I think this is a good excuse as to why we need to mine asteroids.

how can we tell them what to do with their resources?

 

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We can't tell them what to do, we can hold them accountable for trade tariffs and restrictions which violate current trading treaties they have signed...which is what they are doing.

Sad part of the whole issue is that the US and Canada have ample available supplies of all the rare earth materials in question....we just don't produce them. China undercut all pricing on them via virtual slave labor and no environmental restrictions, no western country could compete. Now that they have a virtual lock on production....they are refusing to sell.

If it goes on long enough and prices increase enough, someone will start producing the materials here. If there is profit in it, they will do it.

They should sue the environuts who helped get rare earth production shut down.

 

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Welcome to the issue guys, you're late to the party but glad you're here. This issue is potentially much more sensitive than oil, depending on how small the flow becomes.

 

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This, Ptilk's statement shows that this not the fault of China but the fault of the US government setting policy that are not legally authorized to implement

 

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HAHAHA you guys are so stupid. This is just more of what China has been doing for a couple decades.

the US has a lot of laws and restrictions that are awesome for a lot of different reasons, but give countries without our same values a distinct advantage in a global economy. don't worry. i'm sure super happy fun great mega corp will have a 70 hour a week hundred dollar a month position available for you when you can no longer afford to eat.

 

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I wonder if the higher export tax is enough to drive manufacturers to relocate to China in order to get around the tax. I assume thats the goal.

It's China's resources, they get to do with them what they will. I don't have a problem with them limiting exports or raising prices or doing anything they damn well please. Those activities will do nothing but force those who want those materials to find better, cheaper alternatives.


At one point, Ra-226 (Radium) was the costliest industrial production material known to mankind - far more expensive than gold or platinum. At one point it was priced at over $1,300 per milligram (adjusted for inflation), which puts it at over $36 million dollars per ounce. Obviously this provided a powerful incentive to find alternative materials.


Same thing will happen here. China's policies will drive manufacturers and inventors to figure out how to do the same things with different materials, or in different ways. It is as inevitable as the tide.



Agreed!

 

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And the usual dumb asses start screaming about environmental regulations again.

Listen you stupid mod bags, we are not going to allow companies to poison entire watersheds and dump hazardous waste into peoples back yards in order to compete with prices from China. Even if we did, they pay their workers nothing in many cases, and no....we aren't going to re-institute slavery in the US so we can "compete", even if we did that...the Chinese government would simply provide subsidies until the cost of their materials was substantially below that of ones produced in the USA.....and thus put the US manufacturers out of business. Which is what happened.

This isn't about regulations, it's about a government subsidizing production until it achieves a near monopoly....in direct contravention of existing treaties. Then reducing available supplies to increase costs and put pressure on future trade negotiations.

Some of you people really don't know how to think at all do you?