Comment on China has stopped exporting rare earths to everyone, not just the U.S., cutting off critical materials for tech, autos, aerospace, and defense

Itdidnttrickledown@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

• Avg@lemm.ee ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  They are not nearly as rare as the name implies.

  source

  • jayandp@sh.itjust.works ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    The rarity is the ability to do it without caring about the massive environmental damage often caused while procuring the minerals.

    source
  • captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Check my understanding here: It’s not that they’re scarce, but there’s no geological process that concentrates them like copper or gold. There aren’t any neodymium seams the way there are gold seams, there’s a very little amount everywhere. So you might as well sift the entire Mojave.

    source

    • DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Yeah there’s a reason people were saber rattling over those offshore deposits Japan claimed, and it’s not because undersea mining is cheap and efficient or “they’re on every continent what’s the big deal”

      source
  • meliaesc@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Finding the labor to mine and process it cheaply enough to maintain profit margins, while simultaneously deporting everyone, is what makes things rare.

    source