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Rare Earths Deal With Australia


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2 hours ago, Bedrock Bob said:

The ban on Chinese products was supposed to spur the growth of American resources. 

We can see now exactly how well that idea worked huh?

What should the government do differently to help grow the American Mineral industry, if anything?  Why is Australia able to take advantage of this, but we can’t?

I see this in other things to.  For example, some local government contracts were being won by Australians in Australia. Enforcement of traffic cams of all things. 

Please tell me you don’t think we’ve gotten too lazy to work.

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The government should not ban products that directly compete with the petroleum industry. 

Nor should they lie and say this will spur American industry when we don't have the deposits and infrastructure in place to backfill the void.

The government should not allow corporations to control public resources just to keep them from being exploited simply because they will devalue petroleum interests. All our rare earth deposits are controlled by the petroleum industry. This keeps our deposits from being exploited and keeps us reliant on foreign sources.

The government should stop subsidizing corporate interests and start taxing them in an appropriate manner. Likewise the government should stop taxing materials that will allow other forms of energy to be utilized.

It is painfully obvious the petroleum industry is greasing our politicians to keep competition at a disadvantage. If other industries got the attention that the oil companies did our domestic industry would flourish.

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4 hours ago, Stillweaver hillbelli said:

China stopped selling us RE elements and then the tariffs were put in place that even affected American minerals (read the article). Now, instead of supporting a free market the government will subsidize certain companies (the ones that pay to play).

Your tea leaves just paint a rosy picture for your favorite politician. In actuality only the selected few will be allowed to take part in these ventures. Only with the blessing of the DOD/DOE and only by your favorite politician's generous offer of our hard earned tax dollars.

It seems to be fine to use our tax dollars to guarantee a monopoly to corporations who support the administration. That isn't really supporting American business. It is just limiting business to a select few who are willing and able to pay the extortion.

Offering opportunity to a select few to serve a select purpose is just not helping the American mining industry. Nor does it support the goals of a free market. It is just your favorite politician picking winners and losers with our hard earned tax dollars.

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Never been a fan of gov"t picking winners and losers, if that is what's going on. I will reread the article.

Certainly previous administrations worked the same scam, but lost..

Ironic  about gov't agencies that don't do what they are "entitled"...DOE doesn't produce energy, nor does its "sister"agency educate.

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In order to process rare earth ores into rare earth elements  they have to use very, very nasty chemicals which requires a lot of environmental oversight in the USA.

That's perhaps the main reason why china is the leading producer of rare earths. The environmental oversight is almost non-existent there.  Whereas in the USA there's a lot of emphasis on the environment which increases the cost of production making it almost impossible to compete.

Edited by Morlock
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1 hour ago, Morlock said:

In order to process rare earth ores into rare earth elements  they have to use very, very nasty chemicals which requires a lot of environmental oversight in the USA.

That's perhaps the main reason why china is the leading producer of rare earths. The environmental oversight is almost non-existent there.  Whereas in the USA there's a lot of emphasis on the environment which increases the cost of production making it almost impossible to compete.

China is the biggest producer because of their deposits of monoziite sands. Also because they put millions in prison and then force them to work in industry for free.

All chemicals are nasty. All refining processes are regulated and it is indeed less profitable when you do it safely. But that just means our metals will cost more in the short term than theirs. The Chinese are suffering the consequences of their treatment of the people as well as their environmental horrors. So their RE materials are much more expensive in the long run than the price per pound reflects. 

On the other hand we tax the crap out of hardworking people and give that money to corporate interests to offset the difference in profits. We call it freedom and wave flags and feel really proud to be able to support Chevron and Exxon and Phelps Dodge. 

At least the Chinese have sense enough to know they are prisoners forced into slavery to support an oppressive government. We seem to be convinced we are freedom loving patriots making America great.

 

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  • 2 months later...
On 3/9/2020 at 8:50 AM, chrisski said:

What should the government do differently to help grow the American Mineral industry, if anything?  Why is Australia able to take advantage of this, but we can’t?

I see this in other things to.  For example, some local government contracts were being won by Australians in Australia. Enforcement of traffic cams of all things. 

Please tell me you don’t think we’ve gotten too lazy to work.

chrisski , I was totally surprised a few years ago on a trip to Colorado to see highway maintenance being done by a German Corp. and they were using German built trucks in Green and Yellow colors , don't know if they still do . Australia had the contract that used AZ Highway Patrol look-a-like vans on 60 and set up speed traps at random spots, the actual operators where US , mostly Senior citizens as a part time job. I think it all stopped when some one who had got one too many tickets by mail drove up behind one setup one day and shot and killed him , this was recent like 2008 or 10 ? It was big in the papers for a while , you where probably still overseas.

 

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36 minutes ago, d_day said:

The only mine in the US is partly owned by China.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mountain_Pass_mine

It is the only rare earth mining and processing facility.

But there are mines in far west Texas without a processing facility. They reduce the ore and ship the concentrates to be processed.

 

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