China tightens grip on rare earths

THE late Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping once said: “The Middle East has oil, China has rare earths”.

Now his successors could add: “And we also have Australia’s rare earths”.

And that means China keeps its control of the global rare earths market – and allows it to call the tune on the future of a number of industries, including electronic and green technologies.

Rare earths came into their own with colour television – europium, for example, is necessary to have the colour red on your (TV and computer) screen; terbium produces the colour green. Dysprosium, for example, is necessary in the production of compact discs and can also be used in some nuclear control applications. Yttrium, among its many uses, has properties that allow it to be used in the transmission of acoustic energy. Batteries and magnets are other uses for rare earth elements.

But these elements have many military applications as well, which gives a political and strategic dimension to the announcement today that China Non-Ferrous Metal Mining will become the majority shareholder in Lynus Corp (LYC), a company which has the Mt Weld project in Western Australia, said to be the world