2012 - Rare Earth Metals effectively gone

[Blue Peter]

I've already posted the link in another thread, but it's worth reading Paul Mason's essay on rare earth's:

Paul Mason's Blog

It also contains this quote:

President Barack Obama has now, reportedly, accepted there will be a global resource crunch within a decade, led by peak oil.

Note that this is thrown in, with no supporting description, as if it's just another, obvious, fact,


Peter.

[danza]

Lanthanam, though a 'rare earth' is not particularly rare. It's about as common as copper but is usually spread out very thinly instead of concentrated into useable ores. China may be the only country with significant production just now but it can be produced in several countries.

Im sure your right. However Newsnight did not mention this in it's report.

[SILVERHARP2]

Canada has a large potential in this area as well , so at some price I would guess it might not be as bad as made out.

[2 As and a B]

As defined by IUPAC, rare earth elements or rare earth metals are a collection of seventeen chemical elements in the periodic table, namely scandium, yttrium, and the fifteen lanthanoids.[1] Scandium and yttrium are considered rare earths since they tend to occur in the same ore deposits as the lanthanoids and exhibit similar chemical properties.

The term "rare earth" arises from the minerals from which they were first isolated, which were uncommon oxide-type minerals (earths) found in Gadolinite extracted from one mine in the village of Ytterby, Sweden. However, with the exception of the highly-unstable promethium, rare earth elements are found in relatively high concentrations in the earth's crust, with cerium being the 25th most abundant element in the earth's crust at 68 parts per million.

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

[fifthcolumn]

Last night's BBC2 Newsnight was a bit of a shocker.

Apparently we get most of our rare earth metals from China ... who by 2012 will need ALL of its output for INTERNAL use.

Sooooo ... how will we build high efficiency motors, computers, TVs etc without these vital materials?

Oh Canada......

Not to worry mate. We have gazillions of rare earths right here.
So do the yanks.

We are on the case.

The mining operations are ramping up as we speak.

There will likely be tight supplies for some 2-5 years but after that the Chinese strangehold will be broken.

In the meantime let's all FOCUS.

Not electric CARS but electric BUSES and TRUCKS

Now repeat after me "BUSES and TRUCKS. BUSES and TRUCKS. BUSES and TRUCKS...."

[mobbsey]

Now repeat after me "BUSES and TRUCKS. BUSES and TRUCKS. BUSES and TRUCKS...."

No speako der techno hokum!

Repeat after me: "feet", "walking", "horses", "localisation", "clogs", "slow down"

[fifthcolumn]

Now repeat after me "BUSES and TRUCKS. BUSES and TRUCKS. BUSES and TRUCKS...."

No speako der techno hokum!

Repeat after me: "feet", "walking", "horses", "localisation", "clogs", "slow down"

OK right back at you

City people using their "feet" and "walking" to the countryside where they will eat all your "horses" and crops and undo your "localisation" attempts to go back to the old ways using such items as "clogs". Trying to "slow down" isn't going to work.