China curtailed rare-earth quotas earlier this year, citing environmental concerns and efforts to quell smuggling.
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Examples discussed included export restrictions in China on rare earth metals and in Indonesia on palm oil.
Largely mined in China, rare earths have been shooting up in value as increasing amounts are used around the world.
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China began mining rare earth minerals in the 1980s, and by the mid-90s was well surpassing the U.S. in production.
So the success of Coca-Cola's new orange-juice drink, developed in China, is a rare triumph.
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Due in part to traditional beliefs and distrust of the medical system, voluntary donations are rare in China, where the need for organs far exceeds the supply.
Last week, for instance, China's Ministry of Commerce announced it will reduce by 72% China's exports of rare earth minerals.
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Last year, China temporarily halted exports of rare earth minerals to Japan.
Today, the mine is closed and America imports all of its rare earths from China, which controls 97 percent of the global market.
The Japanese, who buy the majority of unprocessed rare earths from China, are certainly busy: Sumitomo and Toshiba are both setting up projects in Kazakhstan, and other Japanese investors are looking at buying mining rights in Vietnam.
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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That's why China now has a lock on rare earths.
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Controlling the supply of rare earths means that China can also control their processing and use in finished goods, which would fit a broader effort to drive its manufacturers from low- to high-value goods.
The sentiment to mine and produce rare earths outside of China does not fall squarely on the shoulders of these two companies but it is still believed that bigger companies will gain more control of mines and production compared to smaller mining companies.
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The article also states that China has about a third of the rare earth deposits globally and accounts for almost all of the production.
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And this week it appeared, as reported in the New York Times, that China cut off the exports of certain rare earth minerals to Japan.
In keeping with the historic theme, blog commenter "Pamela Ann Smith" said that Turkey's exquisite Iznik pottery, which has blue floral motifs, owes much to the development of rare blue ceramic dyes in China.
China is allowing more companies to export rare earth after they met new environmental standards, but a decline in exports of the minerals suggests policy restrictions haven't kept pace with how swiftly demand has soured.
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 alone accounts for 97 percent of the rare earth metal market.
China holds most of the processing capacity for rare earths metals.
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China produces the vast majority of two particularly important rare earths, dysprosium (99%) and neodymium (95%).
China will continue to export, and will manage rare earths based on WTO rules.
China's domination of the global production of rare-earth minerals in particular has fuelled the search for other sources of materials essential for everything from electronics to wind turbines.
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China consumes some 65% of the world's rare earths, Reuters reported last year, compared to 25% a decade earlier.
China currently produces 97% of the world's rare earths, vital in the manufacture of mobile phones and other high-tech products.
China is producing 97 percent of the global supply of rare earths, despite controlling less than half of its reserves.
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Last October he launched SmartPay, which offers a new way to pay bills in China, where personal checks are nonexistent and credit cards rare.
In due course, the world-outside-of-China, even America, could start to produce more rare earths (as Jack Lifton has noted, and the Chinese have unsurprisingly suggested).
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