The United States has shuttered the vast majority its rare earth mines and now imports over 90% of the rare earth material needed for both economic purposes as well as weaponry.
Rare earth minerals are now an important national policy issue as politicians and media pundits discover the fact that rare earth minerals are required to produce things like electric cars, wind turbines, guided missiles, and iPods.
Virtually all U.S. advanced electronics, as eminent chemist Arthur Robinson reported last month in his newsletter Access to Energy, are dependent on rare earth elements used to enhance the performance of microchips and held in a near global monopoly by the Chinese firm Baotou Steel Rare-Earth Hi-Tech Company in Mongolia.
That is, either the mixed rare earth concentrates or as the separated individual salts or metals of the rare earths.
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Rare earth elements are a group of 17 heavy metals, which despite their name, are not particularly rare.
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According to a report focused on rare earth elements performance for the upcoming year from A.L. Waters Capital, the firm highlighted some specific rare earths and their current prices compared to their peak prices.
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Information provided by Metal Pages, a news site that focuses on non-ferrous metals, ferro alloys and rare earths, indicated that rare earth elements exports have dropped 65% in 2011 and that China has only exported 11, 000 metric tons of rare earths through the first three quarters of the year.
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The European Commission estimates that those resources could total 9.16% of the global rare earth deposits.
The mine was closed in 2002 amid environmental issues and low rare earth elements prices.
The analysis released Wednesday showed more than 20 ingestions were of high-powered, "rare earth" magnets.
If there is a bubble in rare earth metals, China is likely to blame.
Rare earth minerals are often mixed with radioactive elements, and processing creates low-level radioactive waste.
At the higher level, the company would be one of the world's leading rare earth producers.
For his part, Bhappu does not believe the Chinese want to politicize rare earth minerals.
Honda Motor, for instance, said it would start recycling rare earth metals from used batteries.
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Examples discussed included export restrictions in China on rare earth metals and in Indonesia on palm oil.
When the present decade began, the biggest rare earth mine in the world was operating in California.
Molycorp and the rare earth elements it aims to produce have suddenly been receiving overwhelming public attention.
Rare earth metals are a key component of products such as MRI scanners and computer hard drives.
One of the more important but mainly overlooked resources related to national security are rare earth minerals.
But to do that, American manufacturers need to have access to rare earth materials -- which China supplies.
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Behind the surge: China, which supplies the vast majority of rare earth minerals, has started to restrict exports.
China appears to be hoarding its rare earth elements for its own use and is curtailing exports dramatically.
Rare earth exports amounted to 39, 000 metric tons in 2010 but have since dropped to 30, 258 metric tons.
Singer suggested this dwindling supply of rare earth elements could be a feasible backdrop for a new Cold War.
The most common source of thorium is the rare earth phosphate mineral, monazite.
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Idaho also boasts a large vein deposit of thorium and rare earth metals.
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Which is fine, there could be a shortage of rare earth metals.
In a popular book called Rare Earth, paleontologist Peter Ward and astronomer Donald Brownlee laid out a pessimistic hypothesis.
The national security implications for rare earth minerals are as acute as ever.
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