The United States is too reliant on China for minerals crucial to new clean energy technologies, making the American economy vulnerable to shortages of materials needed for a range of green products ”” from compact fluorescent light bulbs to electric cars to giant wind turbines.
So warns a detailed report to be released on Wednesday morning by the United States Energy Department. The report, which predicts that it could take 15 years to break American dependence on Chinese supplies, calls for the nation to increase research and expand diplomatic contacts to find alternative sources, and to develop ways to recycle the minerals or replace them with other materials.
At least 96 percent of the most crucial types of the so-called rare earth minerals are now produced in China, and Beijing has wielded various export controls to limit the minerals’ supply to other countries while favoring its own manufacturers that use them.
We have most of these metals in our country, it’s just that China could supply them cheaper. Disposable miners, little or safety regs, little or no environmental regs, etc. In a few years, China will be able to defeat us without firing a shot. All they will need to do is shutdown the internet and turn off the flow of products and basic chemicals from US plants that have moved their.
This could prove to be a critical national security issue down the road. Whereas America could achieve energy independence if we set our minds to it, I’m not sure about all the rare earths elements of the Periodic Table. Every single semiconductor depends on these, every rare-earth hi-flux magnet depends on these. Everyone reading this story on a computer depends on these. And China controls the market at the moment. Could be a story that does not have a happy ending.
In the energy market you can substitute nat gas for oil in many applications. You can use coal as a chemical feedstock or as a source for liquid fuels. Nuclear can supplant oil, coal, nat gas as an electricity source.
But specific classes of semiconductors DEMAND a fixed ratio of rare earths. There are no subsitutes without a total re-engineering of the chip.
And I thought the holding of most of our ballooning national debt was the worst problem we faced from our Chinese Overlords.
Okay, time to put my old geochemist hat back on and pick up the rock hammer again. For brief overview, the rare-earths are nearly always found in a family of phosphate minerals called MONAZITEs, which in turn are most commonly associated with a geochemically delightful (most would say ‘bizarre’) family of high-carbonate intrusive (igneous) rocks called, unsurprisingly, CARBONATITEs. Because monazites are fairly dense there are some secondary placer — erosion-derived — deposits in sand here and there around the world.
The DoE is correct, but only to a point because they’re looking at [i]production[/i] figures and the Chinese do indeed have some great deposits. They are far from alone, however. The Aussies have a couple of good zones, in which the Chinese have just purchased major interest. One of the best deposits in the world, nearly undevelopped, is in India.
We ourselves have some superb rare-earth element (REE) deposits here in North America, which if we decide we really need them [i]will[/i] be developped. See if you can guess the major ‘problem’ with most of them.
[b]Bear Lodge[/b] Wyoming: some ore veins are 30 metres thick; at least 11 million metric tonnes (mmt) of ore with 3.6% REE grade, along with about 800 mmt at 1.3%. The rocks are also a decent source of Thorium for nuclear power without the Plutonium problem. The deposits are in the Black Hills National Forest.
[b]Iron Hill[/b], Colorado: about 650 mmt at 0.4% REE grade, plus a lot of Niobium and immense deposits of Titanium. The deposits are in the Gunnison National Forest.
[b]Mountain Pass[/b], California: about 90 mmt at 5% REE grade and perhaps another 25 mmt at 8.9% grade.
[b]Wet Mountains[/b], Colorado: about 14 mmt at 1% REE grade. The deposits are in the Upper Grape Creek Wilderness area.
In addition to those deposits there are three good ones in Canada, one in British Columbia, one at the bottom of Lake Nippising in Ontario, and a potentially very important zone in the Saguenay of Québec. This latter has at least 47 mmt of high-Niobium rock and the REEs are yet to be evaluated since the discovery has been explored only partially.
So … the deposits are out there, both here in North America and elsewhere in the Anglosphere. I wouldn’t wait too long before developping some of the ones here in the US, but for obvious political reasons it will certainly be at least two years before any permits could possibly be issued mining in the national forests.
Familiar story isn’t it: we have the means to secure the resources we need (read “energy”, “rare earths”). But do we have the [b]will[/b] to [b]secure[/b] our country’s future.
RE: “from compact fluorescent light bulbs to electric cars to giant wind turbines.”
OH. NO. Whatever shall we do? After all, all of these products are so popular and well-received and the markets are simply flourishing without any artificial propping up by the government’s regulations, incentives, and subsidies! ; > )
John Deere has just [url=http://www.dailymarkets.com/stock/2010/12/13/deere-sells-wind-biz-to-exelon/]dumped its entire wind business[/url] for a billion bucks.
The folks at Deere have been very smart for a very long time. They developped their Lawn and Turf tractor business at a time when everyone made fun of them for doing so. Four years later they were one of the few tractor companies to survive the early ’80s ag crash, and it was homeowner tractors that got them through.
Looks like they’ve chosen to sell into a peak, take the money and run.
There is far more future in Thorium electric than wind or solar. See my comments above. Here in Kansas — allegedly the #3 state for wind energy — production has never passed 40% of nominal potential, and it is totally mis-matched with demand.
Plus the best locations for wind turbines are in areas far from the major markets. Those areas that are close to major markets get the NIMBY problem as well. The big turbines are eye sore, and they kill birds.