China Sees New Limits, but Not Export Ban, on Rare Minerals (Important Update)

[Coventina]

Source: New York Times

BEIJING — Chinese officials said Thursday that they would tightly regulate production of two minerals vital to manufacturing hybrid cars, cell phones, large wind turbines, missiles and computer monitors, but that they would not entirely ban exports.

China produces over 99 percent of the world’s supply of dysprosium and terbium, two rare minerals essential to recent breakthroughs in high-technology industries.

A bureaucratic reshuffle in Beijing this year prompted a review of Chinese policy, and new regulations were drafted that would entirely ban the export of these minerals. That has triggered anger and dismay from Western governments and multinational companies that depend on Chinese supplies.

Wang Caifang, deputy director general of China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, tried on Thursday to allay concerns that the draft rules would become the final policy, saying the regulatory review is still underway.


Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/04/business/global/04minerals.html

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Ah, I'm having visions of Oliver Twist, "Please sir, may I have some (m)ore?"

[On the Road]

1. Woah --

Thought all the elements on the periodic table would at least still ring a bell. (I even remember Yttrium and Ytterbium):

Dysprosium is a chemical element with the symbol Dy and atomic number 66. It is a rare earth element with a metallic silver luster. Dysprosium is never found in nature as a free element, though it is found in various minerals, such as xenotime. Naturally occurring dysprosium is composed of 7 isotopes, the most abundant of which is 164Dy.

Dysprosium was first identified in 1886 by Paul Émile Lecoq de Boisbaudran, but was not isolated in pure form until the development of ion exchange techniques in the 1950s. Dysprosium is used for its high thermal neutron absorption cross-section in making control rods in nuclear reactors, for its high magnetic susceptibility to magnetization in data storage devices and as a component of Terfenol-D. Soluble dysprosium salts are mildly toxic, while the insoluble salts are considered non-toxic.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dysprosium

Terbium is a chemical element with the symbol Tb and atomic number 65. It is a silvery-white rare earth metal that is malleable, ductile and soft enough to be cut with a knife. Terbium is never found in nature as a free element, but it is contained in many minerals, including cerite, gadolinite, monazite, xenotime and euxenite.

Terbium is used to dope calcium fluoride, calcium tungstate and strontium molybdate, materials that are used in solid-state devices, and as a crystal stabilizer of fuel cells which operate at elevated temperatures. As a component of Terfenol-D (an alloy which expands and contracts in magnetic field more than any other alloy), terbium is of use in actuators, in naval sonar systems and sensors. Terbium oxide is used in green phosphors in fluorescent lamps and color TV tubes. Terbium "green" phosphors (which fluoresce a brilliant lemon-yellow) are combined with divalent Europium blue phosphors and trivalent europium red phosphors to provide the "trichromatic" lighting technology, which is by far the largest consumer of the world's terbium supply.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terbium

As far as China goes, probably just economic saber-rattling.

[DainBramaged]

2. China, abuser of rights, over-populated, and without honor

(when it comes to patents and property rights) holds the key to advancing technologies and is trying to extort additional revenue from the rest of the world while (probably) untold thousands are affected by their lack of controls and safeguards in extracting these minerals.

A copy of the draft rules, viewed Thursday, said China would further reduce its combined annual export quotas for all rare-earth elements to 35,000 tons a year, from 53,000 tons last year and almost 66,000 tons as recently as 2005.

The draft policy also clearly stated that exports of dysprosium and terbium were to be prohibited along with exports of three other rare-earth elements: thulium, lutetium and yttrium. But Ms. Wang seemed to back away from that.

By cutting exports, as well as putting a total tax of 42 percent on exports of dysprosium, terbium and some of the other rare-earth elements, Beijing officials have successfully required manufacturers of advanced magnets, motors and other technologies to move their factories to China, where the minerals are readily available.

But China has also tried to increase its control over the rare-earth market, and Chinese industry officials have complained publicly in recent weeks that Western countries do not pay enough for their supplies.





We will never learn that they don't give a shit about anything.