Within the world press, there appears to be much confusion over “rare earth minerals.” Most casual observers know little of these minerals except that they are essential components of electronic chips and that Communist China dominates the market for them.
In a review of Seven Things You Can’t Say About China by Senator Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas), Commentary explains China’s importance succinctly.
“China’s economy is 10 times larger than Russia’s, and Beijing’s military budget is quadruple the size of Moscow’s. This has given China a wide array of coercive tools with which to press its advantage globally, making it the most serious challenge to America’s superpower status in the post-Cold War era.”
Rare but Surprisingly Common
Rare earth minerals are part of this challenge. As long as China controls these mineral markets, America is vulnerable. Several sources estimate that China is the source of sixty to seventy percent of the world’s supply and processes about ninety percent. Without those minerals, the story goes, electronic production and development—including both the military and consumer sectors—would freeze.
The doomsayers imply that the Chinese mine and process so much of the rare earth supply because their vast lands possess a near monopoly of these minerals. In that scenario, China has the world economy in a permanent headlock. World progress and the entire green agenda depend on placating the Red Chinese. To the progressive mind, the choice is simple: acknowledge the Chinese leadership of their brave new world or move back into the Stone Age.
Thankfully, the situation may not be as dire as the progressives paint it. Recently, Marian L. Tupy of the Cato Institute wrote an article in the Wall Street Journal stating that “China’s Rare Earths Aren’t as Rare as You Think.”
Breaking the Chinese Monopoly
The key to understanding the reality of the situation is the use of the word “rare.” It would seem to indicate scarcity. However, that is not the case. Rare earth minerals are not that rare. Their scarcity can be overcome by facilitating their processing.
Help Remove Jesus Bath Mat on Amazon
For example, Mr. Tupy points to a Chinese attempt to limit rare earths in 2010-2011. During that period, the price of a rare earth called cerium jumped from $4.14 a kilogram to $150.55 in a bit more than eighteen months. The next chapter in this little saga is instructive.
“Market mechanisms undermined China’s attempt at resource leverage. In the early 2010s, supply growth outside China accelerated. Projects already in development by Molycorp in California and Lynas in Australia ramped up, adding tens of thousands of metric tons of production capacity. By 2014, China’s market share of rare earths had fallen from more than 90% to about 70%.”
Indeed, rare earths are not particularly rare, according to the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies. The problem is in extraction and processing. Most rare earths are not isolated but combined with other substances. A simplistic example illustrates the problem. Think of rare earths as the light or dark streaks that become visible when breaking apart a rock. To be useful, such rocks need to be located, extracted and then the streak needs to be separated from the rest of the rock. These are all complex processes fraught with environmental dangers.
Given their vast geography and highly controlled media, the Red Chinese care little about environmental risks. They locate their mines and processing plants well out of the public gaze. Those who might expose the issue are treated like Huang Yanling, the Chinese virologist who spoke of conditions at the Wuhan Institute of Virology at the beginning of the COVID pandemic. She—and any record of her existence—simply vanished in 2020.
How Panera’s Socialist Bread Ruined Company
Devising environmentally responsible methods of locating and processing rare earths is difficult. It is easier to let the Chinese do it. As the old saying goes, “Out of sight is out of mind.”
The minerals are plentiful outside China. It is a matter of investing in the future by processing them domestically or in friendly countries. Protecting the United States means it is time for industry to correct its willful negligence and keep these minerals free from manipulation.
Photo Credit: © TTstudio – stock.adobe.com