[Casyimipist]

Well they did build the Great Wall and have a siege mentality. Further proof they are trying to build up their own markets. They have been cornering the market on resources all over the globe by using dollars before they become toilet paper....now they are becoming stingy with their own national wealth....

I suppose you can't blame them considering how resources are becoming more finite....doesn't bode well for international peace or market stability going forward.

Looks like in Japan they have a new gov't as well that will be less tied to the U.S. economically...the global economic shift (locus of control) Eastward continues.

Go east young man....

HONG KONG — China is set to tighten its hammerlock on the market for some of the world’s most obscure but valuable minerals.

China currently accounts for 93 percent of production of so-called rare earth elements — and more than 99 percent of the output for two of these elements, vital for a wide range of green energy technologies and military applications like missiles.

Deng Xiaoping once observed that the Mideast had oil, but China had rare earth elements. As the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries has done with oil, China is now starting to flex its muscle.

Even tighter limits on production and exports, part of a plan from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, would ensure China has the supply for its own technological and economic needs, and force more manufacturers to make their wares here in order to have access to the minerals.

In each of the last three years, China has reduced the amount of rare earths that can be exported. This year’s export quotas are on track to be the smallest yet. But what is really starting to alarm Western governments and multinationals alike is the possibility that exports will be further restricted.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/01/bu...pagewanted=all

[SappyAppy]

I just read the article. I've wondered about this for a while and this article only stresses one of my objections about some of these products.

Why are these new technologies being developed dependent on a finite resource with further limitations on availability because of politics, economics, and logistics at the sources they are extracted from? Has anyone not learned from the issues currently faced with oil?

Is the inclusion and/or use of these metal based on the fact that they are the best material available to get the job done? Or is it a shortcut around funding more research and development with other more available and/or renewable resources for the same outcome?

[Casyimipist]

Yeah I was thinking the same thing. Remember though that even when oil was 150 a barrel...it was still a deal in terms of how much energy you could derive from that same barrel of oil. There is nothing comparable yet and these minerals may be the same deal in some respect at least when it comes to the materials needed to make car batteries and military components...it's just a matter of being shortsighted I suppose and risking the depletion/loss of your national resources or the costs of war to expropriate other nation's resources for short term gain...part of human nature I suppose. I guess the lesson that the inhabitants of Easter Island supposedly learned is not a concern until its too late