What?...another one??

so long USA

Whats the point when China has declared economic war on our largest trading partners?

China provoked Japan with a fishing vessel in Japanese waters ,so Japan arrested the ship and its captain (exactly what China wanted). China demanded the ship and its captain be released and imposed a rare earth mineral ban on Japan to make their point. Japan lost face and released the captain the next day... this was a month ago... China still refuses to sell Japan rare earth minerals....

Rare Earth minerals are required for all modern technology from computers, to wind mills, to solar power, to tv... you name it and almost all new technology requires rare earth metals. China controls 98% of the world existing production of rare earth minerals.

Japan on Friday announced their stockpiles will be depleted by March, and then their economy shuts down because the top 40 manufactures in Japan all require rare earth minerals to operate. Japan has demanded China stop the anti Japan harassment of their companies in China, and Japan also approved new rules of engagement for the Japanese defense forces to allow them to operate on the offensive to protect Japanese interests.

Last week the US imposed sanctions on Chinese imports of things like wind mills and solar panels and the new emerging technologies... as the US claimed China is using their monopoly of the resource to unfairly subsidize their manufacturing industry to the detriment of the US economy and American trading partners.

China's response was to ban all export of rare earth minerals to the US and Germany.... the next two largest manufacturing competitors of China. Germany immediately declared it a national emergency... the US has been silent on the issue trying to work it from behind the scenes.

China in effect declared economic war on the developed manufacturing economies of Japan, the US, and Germany. A devastating blow that will take down the western economy if this ban lasts any more than a few months. Around the world a mad scramble is on now to try and revive old rare earth mines that were shut down due to Chinese underpricing... at best we are two years away from relief. The damage done to our economy will be devastating.

And we don't know what the left hand is doing, so we continue to promote the Chinese as our trade saviors. We have Colin Kinsley as the leading candidate to be our next conservative representative, all while he collect a Petro China paycheck (sourced through Gateway Pipelines (Enbridge)). This will not end well, and this trade mission is for naught at this point.

Soon we will be represented by a Chinese paid bagman to make matters worse, so that he can sell us out for our resources to a country that is using their resources (rare earth minerals)to inflict serious economic blackmail on our economic well being.

Exactly which corporations are we doing this for?? They should be spending their own money to secure business in China. It is pretty bad when every level of government is trotting off to china and spinning us a yarn about all the jobs it will create here. Bull***T!!

Well, we certainly 'live in interesting times' to paraphrase an old (chinese?) curse. Better get busy on some effective recycling programs, to recover at least some of these rare chemical elements from junked electronics. The smelter in Trail is able to to do that, how economically I don't know, but if the world besides China supply amounts to 3% then I suppose an expensive process to extract rare elements might suddenly become viable, read: profitable.
metalman.

And to think that it all started with ping pong.

Metleman, I like the options for investing in this area... Greenland Minerals has the largest deposit on the planet... a country maker once it comes on line in the next few years... Molycorp and Lynas Corp in the US and Australia will come on line first and are receiving help from their governments to do this... locally Belero has a claim they say has rare earths about 160km north east of PG... time will tell... maybe Pat Bell as both the Mining and Forestry Minister will come back realizing the dichotomy of the Chinese face when we are offering up our resources, while on the other hand being confronted with a critical challenge to the essential resources that power the new world economies... one would hope maybe it will motivate Pat to make policy where it counts?

Leave the pipe dreams to the CEO's and act in the interest of your country first and foremost....

Bubble ... Bubble .... I smell trouble .. country maker?

Here is another version of what will happen within a couple of years.

http://oilandglory.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2010/10/05/are_we_headed_for_a_rare_earths_bubble

"Leave the pipe dreams to the CEO's and act in the interest of your country first and foremost.... "
Pipe dreams; a vague reference to the (chinese) smoking of opium perhaps?
Acting in the interest of your country should be paramount, I agree.
One single act would address this priciple; Stop exporting our resources as raw material. Mill it, refine it, then sell it beyond our borders. Our politicians would have to work on something other than supporting some corporation's shareholders in the export of resources in their raw form.
I am aware that we sell finished lumber to China et. al.
metalman.

don't forget the sky is falling too. before u fear mongers get too carried away, there are other sources for these rare earth metals. They were just put out of production because the Chinese were producing them much cheaper. With China banning exports, this will drive up the price and make mining them in other regions much more viable.

Good points Metalman... I agree.

Gus good short summery... generally outlines part of the process... no doubt in 4-5 years things wil ballance out... in the meantime profits are to be made from adversity.

Greenland Minerals for example is estimated to be a $1.7 trillion dollar deposit that will have its uranium side covering most of the costs regardless of rare earth mineral prices. If it turns out to be worth a 100th of that its still got a heck of a lot of upside.