(2010-10-14) China Rare Earth Monopoly

China is the source of 95% of the world's Rare Earth elements. The use of rare earth elements in modern technology has increased dramatically over the past years. Rare earth elements are now incorporated into many technological devices, including Super Conductor-s, samarium-cobalt and neodymium-iron-boron high-flux Rare EarthMagnet-s, electronic polishers, refining catalysts and Hybrid Car components (primarily batteries and magnets).[6] Rare earth ions are used as the active ions in luminescent materials used in optoelectronics applications, most notably the Nd:YAG laser. Erbium-doped fiber amplifiers are significant devices in optical-fiber communication systems. Phosphors with rare earth dopants are also widely used in cathode ray tube technology such as television sets. The earliest color television CRTs had a poor-quality red; europium as a phosphor dopant made good red phosphors possible. Yttrium iron garnet (YIG) spheres have been useful as tunable microwave resonators. Rare earth oxides are mixed with tungsten to improve its high temperature properties for welding, replacing thorium, which was mildly hazardous to work with.

China has been reducing its export quota, to hold these supplies for domestic industry. They've completed eliminated shipments to Japan! Mr. Chen also denied then that his country had imposed an embargo on rare earth exports, suggesting that entrepreneurs in the industry had decided on their own to stop sending shipments to Japan because of their personal feelings toward Japan. He did not explain, though, why all 32 foreign-owned and domestic rare earth exporters in China stopped shipments to Japan on the same day.

Ah, it's a NIMBY issue. Despite their name, most rare earths are not particularly rare. But so far most of the rest of the world has left it to China to do the dirty work of mining them. New mines elsewhere are likely to take three to five years to reach full production, according to industry executives.

Oct19 update: now the US is getting hit? The earth is getting a little less flat, nu?