An extremely timely article. Trump's call to Xi was driven precisely by this. The West is absolutely screwed when it comes to Rare Earths. China owns the entire supply chain for 90% of the world's production. And it would take decades to build these supply chains outside of China--if it is possible at all. Rare Earths are China's unbeatable trump card in the trade wars, indeed in their confrontation with The Empire. And the Chinese, with their slow, methodical, low-key approach are patiently letting it sink in. It's a beautiful thing.
I believe it's closer to 70% Richard, but up to 90% + in certain categories.
All the same Russia, China's main strategic partner's requirements have increased greatly and Putin ain't turning those generators down anytime soon. Able to produce a shell at 10% of the cost of NATO countries (helps having a domestic supply of minerals/metals and all the energy in the world).
If Russia doubles down restricting sales of enriched uranium to America to feed its 96 nuclear power plants (weapons) then WIN/WIN.
In turn we could all leave our basements and meet up at Fox & Feathers public-house for a pint or 6
The rare earth story is quite fascinating. The name is somewhat misleading, as rare earths exist in many countries. But finding deposits that are commercially accessible isn't easy. Then there's the minimum ten year wait to get a mine approved in the West. Then there's the technical and political difficulties associated with refining rare earths.
China is where it is today because in the 1980's, a Chinese academic returned from the USA and convinced the CPC that rare earths were a niche that China should exploit. That was at a time when rare earths had no where near the importance they do today. Nevertheless, China embraced that foresight and went all in. Now they are utterly dominant in this critical supply chain.
China saw a path into the future and did all the hard work necessary to exploit it. It's an admirable success story, the kind of story that sheds light on why China has transformed itself from an impoverished nation to the most productive economy on the planet in just 30 years.
It seems that China not only has rare earths and the capacity to process them, but also "rare" politicians capable of long-term thinking. As I've said on many occasions, learn Chinese; history is very, very dynamic.
G'day Loam, a fine suggestion about language learning. Unfortunately it seems to be in the genes of English native speakers to not need another language as theirs is numero uno.
Australia is a neighbour to one of the fastest growing countries Indonesia, we used to have Indonesian studies as a common subject at school and many universities had Indonesian departments. Now only two universities have Indonesian studies and scholars plus senior colleges that offer Indonesian advanced language courses are rare.
China in the legacy media is about to attack or is the number one enemy so needless to say no one will study the enemies language.
Go back 50 years and we were the first western government whose leader visited China, even before Nixon I believe but that was a social democratic Prime minister and we pay homage to the neoliberal God now.
Rare fool meet rare earth. All of it is over there to bury you in. Now that I got that off my chest can I express my delight at the repetitive stupidity and loser attitude of the Trump and his useless Cabinet of accident prone clowns. Tom Sawyer would be in stitches at this shit show. Unfortunately they are likely to be at war in the middle east any day and more innocents seeking a better life and a civilisation state will have bombs and missiles raining down on them. Make America Go Away.
A lot of rare earth products a lying on the battle field, especially as drones. As an evionmental concerned German (Am deutschen Wesen soll die Welt genensen) I propose a recycling system for drones. Each war party has to pay a deposit for each gram of rare earth in drones before launiching one. Anyone who collect drones will get the deposit back, no matter from which war party. This also will help pensioners to get some pocket money.
Ursel von der Lying wiil surely help to implement this system in close cooperation with Waldemar Selenskyj.
Posslbily this will help to minimize destruciotn and death, as ukrainian soldiers will surely aim to bring the drones to the collection point in a whole condition.
I would say it’s both sides. Heavy battle tanks, armored vehicles, slow cycle artillery are virtually useless near the contact line unless robustly defended by drone or other new tech, and opposing air, GLM, and artillery are non-existent. So NATO dumps their old obsolete stuff, sets gdp targets, puts in place debt mechanisms, and propagandizes citizenry to rearm with new stuff.
US national security concerns are treated as legitimate, while the PRC exercising the same is labelled as weaponising. It's deliberate pigheadedness. And unfortunately for westerners trapped within negotiation and reform have been rebuked and labelled for such treatment as debanking (state plausible deniability as a "private" matter). The conclusion is abundantly clear, only total collapse of the existing political/social structure will avert the eventual panic use of the "nuclear" option. I'm thinking that there's a black swan event, say the volcanism around the caldera that surrounds Naples/Campi Flegrei, a G7 nation under intense financial stress.
An extremely timely article. Trump's call to Xi was driven precisely by this. The West is absolutely screwed when it comes to Rare Earths. China owns the entire supply chain for 90% of the world's production. And it would take decades to build these supply chains outside of China--if it is possible at all. Rare Earths are China's unbeatable trump card in the trade wars, indeed in their confrontation with The Empire. And the Chinese, with their slow, methodical, low-key approach are patiently letting it sink in. It's a beautiful thing.
I believe it's closer to 70% Richard, but up to 90% + in certain categories.
All the same Russia, China's main strategic partner's requirements have increased greatly and Putin ain't turning those generators down anytime soon. Able to produce a shell at 10% of the cost of NATO countries (helps having a domestic supply of minerals/metals and all the energy in the world).
If Russia doubles down restricting sales of enriched uranium to America to feed its 96 nuclear power plants (weapons) then WIN/WIN.
In turn we could all leave our basements and meet up at Fox & Feathers public-house for a pint or 6
AI (DeepSeek) - done
Rare-Earths - done
Enriched Uranium - pending
Starve The Beast
The rare earth story is quite fascinating. The name is somewhat misleading, as rare earths exist in many countries. But finding deposits that are commercially accessible isn't easy. Then there's the minimum ten year wait to get a mine approved in the West. Then there's the technical and political difficulties associated with refining rare earths.
China is where it is today because in the 1980's, a Chinese academic returned from the USA and convinced the CPC that rare earths were a niche that China should exploit. That was at a time when rare earths had no where near the importance they do today. Nevertheless, China embraced that foresight and went all in. Now they are utterly dominant in this critical supply chain.
China saw a path into the future and did all the hard work necessary to exploit it. It's an admirable success story, the kind of story that sheds light on why China has transformed itself from an impoverished nation to the most productive economy on the planet in just 30 years.
It seems that China not only has rare earths and the capacity to process them, but also "rare" politicians capable of long-term thinking. As I've said on many occasions, learn Chinese; history is very, very dynamic.
Go China! MCGA!
G'day Loam, a fine suggestion about language learning. Unfortunately it seems to be in the genes of English native speakers to not need another language as theirs is numero uno.
Australia is a neighbour to one of the fastest growing countries Indonesia, we used to have Indonesian studies as a common subject at school and many universities had Indonesian departments. Now only two universities have Indonesian studies and scholars plus senior colleges that offer Indonesian advanced language courses are rare.
China in the legacy media is about to attack or is the number one enemy so needless to say no one will study the enemies language.
Go back 50 years and we were the first western government whose leader visited China, even before Nixon I believe but that was a social democratic Prime minister and we pay homage to the neoliberal God now.
Rare fool meet rare earth. All of it is over there to bury you in. Now that I got that off my chest can I express my delight at the repetitive stupidity and loser attitude of the Trump and his useless Cabinet of accident prone clowns. Tom Sawyer would be in stitches at this shit show. Unfortunately they are likely to be at war in the middle east any day and more innocents seeking a better life and a civilisation state will have bombs and missiles raining down on them. Make America Go Away.
A lot of rare earth products a lying on the battle field, especially as drones. As an evionmental concerned German (Am deutschen Wesen soll die Welt genensen) I propose a recycling system for drones. Each war party has to pay a deposit for each gram of rare earth in drones before launiching one. Anyone who collect drones will get the deposit back, no matter from which war party. This also will help pensioners to get some pocket money.
Ursel von der Lying wiil surely help to implement this system in close cooperation with Waldemar Selenskyj.
Posslbily this will help to minimize destruciotn and death, as ukrainian soldiers will surely aim to bring the drones to the collection point in a whole condition.
I have said from the beginning of the war that one of its objectives was to recycle old mil tech to make way for modern tech.
That would be from the Russian side because NATO isn’t doing squat.
I would say it’s both sides. Heavy battle tanks, armored vehicles, slow cycle artillery are virtually useless near the contact line unless robustly defended by drone or other new tech, and opposing air, GLM, and artillery are non-existent. So NATO dumps their old obsolete stuff, sets gdp targets, puts in place debt mechanisms, and propagandizes citizenry to rearm with new stuff.
US national security concerns are treated as legitimate, while the PRC exercising the same is labelled as weaponising. It's deliberate pigheadedness. And unfortunately for westerners trapped within negotiation and reform have been rebuked and labelled for such treatment as debanking (state plausible deniability as a "private" matter). The conclusion is abundantly clear, only total collapse of the existing political/social structure will avert the eventual panic use of the "nuclear" option. I'm thinking that there's a black swan event, say the volcanism around the caldera that surrounds Naples/Campi Flegrei, a G7 nation under intense financial stress.
what does the bully do now?? LOLOL!