[Sixstrings]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'H')ONG KONG — China, which has been blocking shipments of crucial minerals to Japan for the last month, has now quietly halted shipments of some of those same materials to the United States and Europe, three industry officials said on Tuesday.

The Chinese action, involving rare earth minerals that are crucial to manufacturing many advanced products, seems certain to further ratchet up already rising trade and currency tensions with the West. Until recently, China typically sought quick and quiet accommodations on trade issues. But the interruption in rare earth supplies is the latest sign from Beijing that Chinese officials are willing to use their growing economic muscle.

“The embargo is expanding” beyond Japan, said one of the three rare earth industry officials, all of whom insisted on anonymity for fear of business retaliation by Chinese authorities. They said Chinese customs officials imposed the broader shipment restrictions Monday morning, hours after a top Chinese official had summoned international news media Sunday night to denounce United States trade actions.

China mines 95 percent of the world’s rare earth elements, which have broad commercial and military applications, and are vital to the manufacture of diverse products including large wind turbines and guided missiles. Any curtailment of Chinese supplies of rare earths is likely to be greeted with alarm in Western capitals, particularly because Western companies are believed to keep much smaller stockpiles of rare earths than Japanese companies do.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/20/business/global/20rare.html?_r=2&hp

[Plantagenet]

Maybe this will encourage the environmentalists in the US to end their resistance to the Mountain Pass Mine in California, and perhaps the government will finally issue the needed permits, and maybe the government will even make a loan or do some research that will help with the production of these critical minerals.

Molycorp's Mountain Pass Mine

[gollum]

This industry among others should have never been allowed to leave the US.

[Plantagenet]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('gollum', 'T')his industry among others should have never been allowed to leave the US.

[Sixstrings]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Plantagenet', 'T')he rare earth mining industry was driven out of the US by the environmentalists. The Mountain Pass mine was the largest rare earth's mine anywhere until it was shut down in 2002 by the environmentalists.

[gollum]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Sixstrings', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Plantagenet', 'T')he rare earth mining industry was driven out of the US by the environmentalists. The Mountain Pass mine was the largest rare earth's mine anywhere until it was shut down in 2002 by the environmentalists.

[mattduke]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Plantagenet', 'M')aybe this will encourage the environmentalists in the US to end their resistance to the Mountain Pass Mine in California, and perhaps the government will finally issue the needed permits, and maybe the government will even make a loan or do some research that will help with the production of these critical minerals.

Molycorp's Mountain Pass Mine

[Keith_McClary]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Plantagenet', ' ')maybe the government will even make a loan or do some research that will help with the production of these critical minerals

[green_achers]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Plantagenet', '
')It wasn't "allowed to leave"...The rare earth mining industry was driven out of the US by the environmentalists. The Mountain Pass mine was the largest rare earth's mine anywhere until it was shut down in 2002 by the environmentalists.

[Plantagenet]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('green_achers', 'I') was on the DOI team that was dispatched to the Mojave in the late 90s to deal with a nasty toxic/radioactive spill they had in the middle of desert tortoise habitat.

[Pretorian]

there shouldnt be any mine or solar, people have to learn humility and modesty and live in the area where they killed off everything alive already, and keep themselves and their toxicity there.. I wonder if cancer cells, once getting their freedom and immortality de-jure, ever perplexed by their deaths de-facto.

[ritter]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Plantagenet', '
')
No offense, but this is one of the classic examples of environmentalist hypocrisy.

[snip]
If you and other environmentalists are so concerned about "desert tortoise habitat" then why aren't you or the other environmentalists doing anything about the destruction of this habitat by solar power arrays and their transmission lines?

[Plantagenet]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('ritter', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Plantagenet', '
')
No offense, but this is one of the classic examples of environmentalist hypocrisy.

[snip]
If you and other environmentalists are so concerned about "desert tortoise habitat" then why aren't you or the other environmentalists doing anything about the destruction of this habitat by solar power arrays and their transmission lines?

[ritter]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Plantagenet', '
')1. God ritter -- your potty mouth is overflowing---flush quick!

2. You don't understand that environmental groups can STOP almost any development by filing a series of lawsuits that can take years to go through the courts. Where are the LAWSUITS from Sierra Club and other environmental groups that pay flocks of lawyers to sue to protect the environment? Follow the money---the environmentalist aren't putting up the money to pay the lawyers to delay the solar project and protect the desert tortoise habitat? And why isn't the government shutting down the solar power plant to protect the desert tortoise habitat when it was such a big issue when it was a mine destroying tortoise habitat? Why is the government actually HELPING the destruction of the desert tortoise habitat?

3. Perhaps Obama has driven you insane, since your post rather missed the point that the only US rare earth's mine was shut down by the government in 2002 because, as Greenachers noted above, the mine was damaging the precious desert tortoise habitat, but the same government is now actively assisting in destroying the same desert tortoise habitat in the same biome in the same desert in 2010 to enable construction of a solar power plant and environmentalists haven't filed lawsuits to stop the groovy solar power plant.

[green_achers]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Plantagenet', '
')No offense, but this is one of the classic examples of environmentalist hypocrisy.

Environmentalists in environmental groups ... (woof, woof, yadda yadda...)

[green_achers]

Oh, and what else was happening in almost every sector of the US economy about that time? That's right, everyone was discovering it was cheaper to import stuff from overseas than to make it here. But that takes a minor effort in the thought dept. It's so much easier to blame them durned envarnmentalists...

[Plantagenet]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('green_achers', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Plantagenet', '
')No offense, but this is one of the classic examples of environmentalist hypocrisy.

[Keith_McClary]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('ritter', 'H')as Obama driven you insane?

[Ludi]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Plantagenet', '
')If you and other environmentalists are so concerned about "desert tortoise habitat" then why aren't you or the other environmentalists doing anything about the destruction of this habitat by solar power arrays and their transmission lines?