China Boosts Its Mining Quota for First Batch of Rare Earths
By: Bloomberg News
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
China Boosts Its Mining Quota for First Batch of Rare Earths
(Bloomberg) -- China increased its mining quota for the first batch of rare earths by 27% from a year earlier, with demand for the strategic minerals unabated despite the pandemic.
© Bloomberg Neodymium is displayed at the Inner Mongolia Baotou Steel Rare-Earth Hi-Tech Co. factory in Baotou, Inner Mongolia, China, on Wednesday, May 5, 2010. A generation after Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping made mastering neodymium and 16 other elements known as rare-earths a priority, China has cornered the market, with far-reaching effects ranging from job losses and global trade to U.S. national security.
The new quota for the first batch is 84,000 tons, China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said in a statement on Friday . That compared with a cap of 66,000 tons for last year’s first batch.
Another 81,000 tons of the minerals used in everything from electric vehicles to military hardware will be supplied to key producers including China Northern Rare Earth Group High-tech Co. for rare earth smelting and separation, according to the ministry.
China typically issues two batches of rare earth quotas a year. Last year’s total reached a record 140,000 tons even as the coronavirus pandemic slashed global trade.
The nation is also looking at banning sales of the technology needed to refine and purify rare earths to countries or companies deemed as a threat to state security, a person familiar with the matter said.
©2021 Bloomberg L.P.
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The uses of rare earth metals:
In order of increasing atomic mass, the 17 rare earth metals and some of their common applications are given below.
Scandium : Atomic weight 21. Used to strengthen aluminum alloys.
Yttrium : Atomic weight 39. Used in superconductors and exotic light sources.
Lanthanum : Atomic weight 57. Used in specialty glasses and optics, electrodes and hydrogen storage.
Cerium : Atomic weight 58. Makes an excellent oxidizer, used in oil cracking during petroleum refining and is used for yellow coloring in ceramics and glass.
Praseodymium : Atomic weight 59. Used in magnets, lasers and as green color in ceramics and glass.
Neodymium : Atomic weight 60. Used in magnets, lasers and as purple color in ceramics and glass.
Promethium : Atomic weight 61. Used in nuclear batteries. Only man-made isotopes have ever been observed on Earth, with a speculated 500-600 grams naturally occurring on the planet.
Samarium : Atomic weight 62. Used in magnets, lasers and neutron capture.
Europium : Atomic weight 63. Makes colored phosphors, lasers, and mercury-vapor lamps.
Gadolinium : Atomic weight 64. Used in magnets, specialty optics, and computer memory.
Terbium : Atomic weight 65. Used as green in ceramics and paints, and in lasers and fluorescent lamps.
Dysprosium : Atomic weight 66. Used in magnets and lasers.
Holmium : Atomic weight 67. Used in lasers.
Erbium : Atomic weight 68. Used in steel alloyed with vanadium, as well as in lasers.
Thulium : Atomic weight 69. Used in portable x-ray equipment.
Ytterbium : Atomic weight 70. Used in infrared lasers. Also, works as a great chemical reducer.
Lutetium : Atomic weight 71. Used in specialty glass and radiology equipment.
Why Rare Earths Are Achilles’ Heel for U.S., Europe ...
I must say that I am amazed that in light of the USA banning Huawei, attempting block TikTok, WeChat, closing and invading the Chinese Consulate in Houston with no evidence of wrongdoing presented, forcing the closing of Confucius Institutes, banning Chinese students from certain studies and how many other conspiracy theories, that China did not ban the sale of rare earth metals and the technology to the USA. I thought it was very American to believe that there was nothing to fear but fear itself.
Apparently, ''rare earths'' aren't actually very rare. But it's difficult and dangerous to extract and refine them. Typically the kind of activity that Occidentals have been quite happy to leave to ''those people''.
So now China has the technology.
Gee! That's not fair! America would never embargo technology!
... oh, wait...
Have no fear. Bejing Biden will get on his knees for Xi and do whatever is demanded of his Chinese master.
Seriously?
That's all you have?
Unfounded insults?
That's all?
Yes, SERIOUSLY.
President Trump was the ONLY President to directly confront China and demand they play by the rules.... and not the rules that CHINA decided to play by, which was screw the rest of the world and get out of the way of the Chinese Communist Party and what it had in store for the world.
By the way, "Where in the world is Hunter" (please note the play on words)
From what has been revealed, he still hasn't divested himself of his Chinese handlers financial influence and by extension the influence exerted on Bejing Joe.
Have a great life...