U.S. aims to end China's rare earth metals monopoly

[phantom power]

(Reuters) - The United States wants more countries to boost production of so-called rare earth metals used in clean energy technology products to break China's monopoly on the supplies, a top Energy Department official told Congress on Thursday.

Diversifying supplies of the rare metals is important to the Obama administration, because they are used in electric cars, solar panels and wind turbines, all of which the White House is promoting in its overhaul of U.S. energy policy.

China accounts for 95 percent of global production of rare earth metals. Its market dominance came in focus this month when industry sources cited concerns Beijing was apparently holding back shipments to Japan. A Japanese trading firm source has said China ended the de facto ban, but Japanese customers are looking elsewhere for supplies.

The incident fueled concern that clean-energy products could become more expensive and harder to manufacture outside of China.

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE68T68T20100930

[gmoney]

1. isn't that one reason we're still in Afghanistan?

huge mineral deposits, including lithium, IIRC the hype a few months ago of an older story.

[NNadir]

2. I know a pretty good source of lanthanum, cerium, praseodymium and neodymium.

One can also obtain europium from it, but one would need it to cool down for roughly 150 years for the two non radioactive isotopes.

[phantom power]

3. so crazy, it just might work

[NNadir]

4. Actually, only a few hundred metric tons of neodymium are involved.

I covered this point on another website where I sometimes write:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/8/29/897137/-Neodymium-Nickelate-High-Temperature-Electrolysis-of-Water-In-Solid-Oxide-Cells.">Neodymium Nickelate High Temperature Electrolysis of Water In Solid Oxide Cells.