this post was submitted on 02 Aug 2023
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Insight: World battles to loosen China's grip on vital rare earths for clean energy transition (www.reuters.com)
submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/world
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[–] schroedingershat 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Daily reminder. Monocrystalline PV, LFP or sodium batteries, and the dominant onshore wind generator types involve 0 rare earths. Offshore wind doesn't technically need them but they are used in most installations for now.

EVs can be made without permanent magnets if you don't insist on every soccer mother car out-accelerating an early 2000s ferrari and don't insist on perfectly silent motors (rather than merely much quieter than ICEs). EVs are also not the only form of non-fossil fuel transport.

Ban them, put a price on carbon and the green transition will happen faster. It's not a necessary component.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

This is the best summary I could come up with:

The world's two biggest rare earths companies outside of China are facing challenges turning rock from their mines into the building blocks for magnets used across the global economy, from Apple's (AAPL.O) iPhone to Tesla's (TSLA.O) Model 3 to Lockheed Martin's (LMT.N) F-35 fighter jet.

Recent struggles by MP (MP.N), Lynas (LYC.AX) and other companies to refine their own rare earths highlight the difficult task the rest of the world faces to break China's stranglehold on the key group of 17 metals needed for the clean energy transition, interviews with more than a dozen consultants, executives, investors and industry analysts showed.

Technical complexities, partnership strains and pollution concerns are hampering companies' ability to wrest market share away from China, which according to the International Energy Agency controls 87% of global rare earths refining capacity.

To extract neodymium and praseodymium to build EV magnets, for example, MP must first remove the less-desirable lanthanum and cerium that compose about 83% of its California deposit in a process that relies on an intricate cocktail of acids, bases and other chemicals that are tailored to the mine's geology.

In 2019, the pair agreed to build refining facilities near San Antonio, Texas and discussed with Trump administration officials their plans to be "the only large scale producer of separated (rare earth elements) in the world outside of China," according to emails obtained by Reuters.

[–] FlyingSquid 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Are we really going to trust a LLM to summarize news for us accurately on Lemmy? I thought we were better than this.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I mean, you don't have to, you can read it yourself.

[–] FlyingSquid 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I understand that, but people are going to trust this bot. And it's in tons of threads now. I think it is a mistake.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

Well, I'm obviously biased because I'm the author of the bot, but I think it's useful. Let's leave it up to moderators - they can either reach me and I'll add an exception to their community or they can simply ban the bot from their community.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

"Technical complexities, partnership strains and pollution concerns are hampering companies' ability to wrest market share away from China"

This is a main reason China has a large market share in the first place. There are a number of rare earth deposits around the world but clean extraction and refining is expensive. China has been willing to go the cheap and dirty route. So everyone let china sell it to the rest of the world cheaper than local deposits could be exploited due to environmental regulations.

There are only three options:

Buy from China. Which may no longer be possible.

Local extraction but more expensive. With supply issues as production ramps up.

Local extraction but the environmental regulations get tossed aside due to National Security. Still likely to be more expensive than china and slow to scale, plus the added joy of pollution.

[–] wurzelgummidge 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Buy from China. Which may no longer be possible.

I'm sure the Chinese would be more than happy to sell but the US needs to learn how to cooperate and share instead of constantly trying to control and dominate. The rest of the world is fed up with America plundering their resources and telling it how to run their affairs. Especially as it can barely run its own

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Counterpoint: The Chinese can develop the tech themselves, they obviously have the raw materials. They want to move themselves up the value chain as their labour costs rise, this is the perfect opportunity.

[–] wurzelgummidge 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It's also an opportunity for the US to dial back the ludicrous propaganda, learn to compromise and cooperate. Imagine what could be achieved if the two countries worked together.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

China and compromise?

Sorry. You must live in a different reality to me.

[–] wurzelgummidge 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I don't live in an American propaganda bubble that's for sure

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Does the nine dash line exist where you live?

[–] wurzelgummidge 0 points 1 year ago

Indeed it does, funny you should ask. The Taiwan authorities not only agree with and support the nine-dash line, but they also still claim all of Mongolia as well as parts of Russia, India, Pakistan and Afghanistan. The Beijing government, much to Taiwan’s dismay, has long since signed treaties with all of them except for a small part of India which is still in dispute.

Of course, you wouldn’t know about that because the AP/Reuters/AFP cabal doesn’t tell you. It doesn’t sit well with the approved narrative. When it comes to global news they are the ones that cherry-pick what they think you should know.

There’s a link here that introduces and explains the modus operandi of these three news agencies. But you’ll hate it, you won’t read it.

[–] aufheben 2 points 1 year ago

Another country with a lot of natural resources that isn’t run by a pliable monarchy? This is a job for America!

[–] Chickenstalker 1 points 1 year ago

Supercapacitors made from biopolymers are being developed to replace metal batteries.