Bad News For China: The rare earth elements are not so rare

“Heavy rare elements are added as a type of spice, doping agent, to maintain magnet magnet magnet magnet. This also improves corrosion and longevity resistance,” says Seaver Wang, Director of the Climate and Energy Director at the Oukand Break.

Beyond magnets, these rarely earth elements can also serve a number of goals, such as making metal more powerful, improving radar systems and even cancer treatment. Without them, in many cases, technological infrastructure and user accessories will not be able to present themselves at the same level – but they will still maintain their basic functions. “Wind turbines will simply come out of operation 10 years earlier; electric vehicles will not last so long,” says Wang.

Lange agrees that the impact of the loss of access to heavy rare earth elements would be a little manageable for US companies. “One place where this rare land is in your car is in the engines that pull up and down your window,” Lange says. “There are ways to just deal with some things that are not as fun as rolling on your windows by hand.”

Doors and solutions

In the past, China’s critical mineral restrictions did not work very well. One of the reasons is that US companies who want to buy rare minerals on Earth can simply pass first through an intermediary side. For example, Belgium has become a possible re-export center that seems to pass the germanium of Beijing minerals for the first time limited in 2023-from China to the United States, According to commercial dataS Since the European Union has much higher relationships with Washington than Beijing, it is difficult for the Chinese government to effectively stop this flow of trade.

Another sign that China’s export control was not very effective is that the price of critical minerals has only increased slightly since the policies have been implemented for the first time, indicating that the supply levels remain stable. “Whatever they did in 2023, it has not actually changed the status quo,” Lange says.

But China’s latest restrictions are more expansive and there is already some evidence that this time things can be different. Companies that need these elements are forced to buy them from other companies with existing private stocks that have become more precious in recent weeks. “There is currently a very sharp increase in prices to reduce stocks,” says Bascaran, citing conversations she has made with rare traders on Earth.

In the long run, however, companies may be able to find technological solutions to deal with a potential shortage of rare earth minerals. Tesla, for example, announced in 2023 that it reduced their use in its EV engines by 25 percent and plans to get rid of them completely in the future. The car manufacturer did not clarify what he would use instead, but Experts speculate It can turn to other types of magnets that do not rely on rare land.

Where are the American mines?

While rare lands or critical minerals are generally often cited along with semiconductors as industries that the United States wants to reconfigure most, the challenges associated with returning each of them are very different.

Unlike the creation of advanced semiconductors, which requires the use of complex machines worth hundreds of millions of dollars and the construction of extremely complex factories, critical minerals are not so difficult to produce. The technologies involved in their passing and refinement are mature, and the US and Canada have large natural deposits for some of them. But the mining industry was pushed out of the West because it does not generate a lot of value and is also extremely polluting.