China

We’re excited to announce two new additions to our distinguished panel of experts:

Emily Coppel is a policy analyst from the American Security Project. She is also the author of “Rare Earth Metals and U.S. National Security,” a report outlining the national security risks of U.S. over-reliance on China as supplier of REEs.

Professor Patrick Taylor, Ph.D., P.E., FASM, is the Director of the Kroll Institute for Extractive Metallurgy at the Colorado School of Mines, where he specializes in the issues of mineral processing, extractive metallurgy, chemical metallurgy, recycling and waste minimization.

To learn more about their work, and our other panelists, visit our experts page.

In what may become the most expensive diversified minerals takeover to-date, China and Brazil appear set to engage in a strategic battle over copper deposits in Africa, according to Bloomberg.  In line with China’s recent efforts to enlarge its footprint in Africa in its quest for natural resources, China’s Jinchuan Group is considering countering Rio de Janeiro-based Vale’s bid for South African company Metorex, which owns copper and cobalt mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia.

The news comes as no surprise as both China and Brazil are known to have what one analyst calls “voracious appetites” for mining. It does, however, beg the question how the United States fits into the looming global showdown over strategic mineral resources. While the U.S. is only now beginning the overdue reassessment of its own mineral policies, resource-hungry nations like China and Brazil are already off to the races. It is time for U.S. policy makers to recognize this dangerous strategic disadvantage, and to act accordingly.

Over the 4th of July weekend, reports about a group of Japanese scientists who have discovered significant rare earth deposits on the seabed of the Pacific Ocean have made quite a splash, leading some to talk about a challenge to China’s rare earth near-total monopoly. ARPN expert Gareth Hatch cautions that while the research is [...]

In this story hitting the East Asia news wires, Showa Denko, a leading Japanese metals fabricator, announced it will be moving its Rare Earths manufacturing facility to China. This is an alarm bell for anyone who believes the U.S. must stake a leadership claim in the green-tech sector. Coupled with decreased Chinese exports, access to [...]

In a June 27 piece from Business Insider, Jim Powell, a technology and strategic metals analyst with Laurentian Bank Securities, attempts to clear up the confusion over the future supply and demand of critical metals. His interview with The Critical Metals Report highlights the struggle between China and the rest of the world over Rare [...]

A new piece in the New Scientist underlines the importance of strategic metals to our new economy — from tech toys like the iPad and smart phones to green-tech applications ranging from solar panels to wind turbines. The Tellurium in the title is an element critical to new solar panel applications. As New Scientist puts [...]

In less than two minutes, this short, but informative, video clip on the BBC’s website does a great job of getting to the heart of the rare earths crunch that puts the U.S. at the mercy of China. Ending our dangerously high degree of resource dependency is possible, but it all boils down to the question [...]

Statistics show that rare earths reserves in China are down to 27 million tons and, at current production rates, may be exhausted as early as 2025. This data underscores the urgency of the rare earths crunch we have been discussing on this blog in recent weeks.  Having produced rare earths at rates exceeding 100,000 tons [...]

Friends of the American Resource Policy Network are aware that, in an effort to secure access to the continent’s natural resources, China’s state-backed mining companies have been investing heavily in Africa (Chinese foreign direct investment in Zambia, for example, has grown by 1,000% since 2001.) According to the Associated Press, China is now expanding its [...]

Rhodia Rare Earth Systems, one of only two rare earths producers in Europe, has entered into a cooperative agreement with French nuclear group Areva, according to AFP. The agreement between the two companies spells out a plan to jointly develop and exploit previously untapped deposits containing a mix of uranium and rare earths elements (REEs). [...]