Rare earths: Time for the U.S. to boost production?

Congress may soon ask the U.S. to ramp up its efforts to snag a larger share of the critical global rare earths supply chain.

Reps. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.) and Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) introduced a bill Wednesday that would direct the U.S. Geological Survey to conduct a three-year international assessment of the availability and production of rare earth elements.

The Resource Assessment of Rare Earths (RARE) Act would study known mineral reserves as well as scope out potential undiscovered deposits while analyzing the mine-to-manufacturing process.

Rare earths are present in a growing range of technologies, including military radar systems, wind turbines, electric vehicle batteries, smartphones and more. But China mines 97% of the rare earths used around the world and has recently scaled back exports.

The only operating commercial rare earths mine in the U.S. is the Molycorp Inc. facility in Mountain Pass, Calif., near the Mojave National Preserve just west of the Nevada border.  On Tuesday, the company announced a partnership with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory to develop new ways to create commercial rare earth permanent magnets.

U.S. officials have called the tightening supply of the minerals a strategic vulnerability that could undermine not only national security but also the nation’s burgeoning clean-tech sector. On Tuesday, President Obama stressed the importance of a strong national energy policy during an address at Georgetown University.

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-- Tiffany Hsu

Photo: The Mountain Pass rare earth mine. Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times

Comments

[Mike51]

Here we go again, corporate interests and their government stooges using a "supply shortage" to walk all over taxpayers and the environment. This time the boogey man is big, bad China... ohhh, I'm scared. Hopefully, I'm overly pessimistic. Maybe we have learned from the past and will exploit our resources responsibly this time, and hold the mining companies accountable for the inevitable cleanup. However, this sounds like the same old scare strategy I've been listening to for 40 years.

[Dr. A. Cannara]

Excellent! https://docs.google.com/document/d/1zp6Kc7CYvJ9QRAHLcMST5NyD8VKq4OJI_CkoTg9DQUc/edit?hl=en&pli=1#

And Thorium is our key to safe energy for millennia...
http://tinyurl.com/25mgqkd and http://tinyurl.com/yb2qgex and
http://tinyurl.com/ye6leml

And, we don't need China selling what we invented back to us either...
http://energyfromthorium.com/2011/01/30/china-initiates-tmsr/#comments
www.theregister.co.uk/2011/02/01/china_thorium_bet/
www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/ambroseevans_pritchard/8393984/Safe-nuclear-does-exist-and-China-is-leading-the-way-with-thorium.html

Remember, we've 'only' wasted 49 years...
http://energyfromthorium.com/pdf/CivilianNuclearPower.pdf
--
Dr. A. Cannara
650-400-3071

[surfdogh2o]

Each bill passed by Congress or in California should identify specific funding sources, what other spending will be cut or what taxes will be increased, to pay for this.

This would end the stupid practice of passing unfunded mandates that has gotten this country and our state into this message.

I am a liberal democrat, and I approve this message.

[Hugh J. Grant]

If anyone had the impression that Red China is not our enemy, this should eliminate that fiction - when are we going to realize that the Chinese dictatorship, no matter how capitalistic they may seem, are basically socialist, and are beating us at our own game, simply because we allow them to deflate their currency artificially, to the detriment of the dollar, thus causing us to become a debtor nation, under the economic thumb of the Chinese !! I heard Donald Trump on O'Reilly tonight, and in spite of O'Reilly's attempt at sarcasm, Trump showed quite clearly that he, more than any other Republican potential candidate, and especially more so than the community organizer, is best prepared to take on the Red Chinese and Russian bullies once and for all, and position this Nation once again as the paramount Country in the World. God knows, I hope the Republican Party has enough brains to nominate him, perhaps with Governor Palin as his running mate !!!!!

[bill lane]

the private sector was working until china dumped their REEs on the market, that's why mountain pass closed. now that china has raised its prices or stopped exporting or whatever, it's economic again to mine, that's why the owner of mountain pass did a big ipo last year, and they're going to start mining again, all w/ private money.

not sure how the government can help. they did do a good job in the late 1990's enforcing environmental regulations on the previous owner of mountain pass, there were some nasty spills and so on that had to be cleaned up.

i have no idea, maybe there are lots of federal lands that exploration and mining could happen on. the press release on this keeps saying the bill or law or whatever it was was about international stuff, not domestic stuff per se. not sure what that means.

[crashnbyrne]

Uhh, I thought it was common knowledge that we couldn't let Chinese boots touch the ground in Afghanistan because of the abundance of rare earth minerals. Does anyone pay attention?

[Lemonic]

I like how we need to mine to protect the clean-tech sector. I'm cool with it, I just find it ironic. or is it coincidental?

[me]

Lets make sure some greedy corporations doesn't cuts a sweetheart deal and americans get screwed again out what should really belong to all americans.

Nationalize this and use the profits for healthcare.

[Olden Atwoody]

Late to the party. Rare earths have been known to the savvy investor for just under a year. Where has the Times been?