TPT November 2009

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Global Marketplace
84 November 2009 ›
each of the last three years, China has reduced the amount of rare
earths available for export. This year’s quotas are on track to be the
smallest yet, and Western governments and multinationals alike are
alert to the alarming possibility of further restriction of these exports.
(“China Tightens Grip on Rare Minerals,” 31 August)
Mr Bradsher wrote: “Tighter limits on production and exports,
part of a plan from the Ministry of Industry and Information
Technology, would ensure China has the supply for its own
technological and economic needs, and force more manufacturers
to make their wares [in China] in order to have access to
the minerals.”
To the automotive industry alone, uncertain access to rare earth
minerals would be disruptive in the extreme. China commands
95% of current production of neodymium. The electric motor in
a Toyota Prius requires two to four pounds of neodymium, the
Tribune was told by Dudley Kingsnorth, who compiles mining and
trade statistics for the private consulting firm Industrial Minerals
(Perth, Australia).
“The people who are making [automotive] products outside
China are at a huge disadvantage,” said Mr Kingsnorth. “And that
is why more and more of that manufacturing is moving to China.”
Only days after Mr Bradsher’s article was published, China
sought to allay concerns about supplies of dysprosium and
terbium, in particular – rare minerals crucial to recent advances in
high-technology industries – but did not disavow tight regulation
of production. Noting that a review of export policy was still under
way, Wang Caifang, deputy director general of the Ministry of
Industry and Information Technology, gave assurances that China
would not “take arbitrary decisions.” After addressing the Minor
Metals and Rare Earths 2009 conference, in Beijing, Ms Wang
said on 3 September that China would continue to set an annual
quota for the export of each mineral. But, she added, “I don’t
think it will be zero.”
› Chinese-Australian relations, already disturbed by China’s
indictment of the Rio Tinto employees [see “Prudent Australia,”
above], may be further tested as Australian regulators ponder a deal
by a Chinese company to acquire a majority stake in Australia’s main
rare-earth mine.
As reported in the Tribune, two Australian mines with potential
combined production equal to a quarter of global output – Lynas
Corp and smaller rival Arafura Resources – were to have opened
within three years, but lost their financing in the global financial
crisis. In the spring, mining companies wholly owned by the Chinese
government came in with cash and reached agreements to buy
51.7% of Lynas and 25% of Arafura. The Arafura deal has made
it through to just short of final approval; a decision on Lynas, twice
postponed, faced another deadline in mid-September.
Mr Bradsher recalled that Deng Xiaoping, China’s de facto
supreme leader from 1977 until his death in 1997, once remarked
that the Mideast had oil but China had rare earth elements. Mr
Deng’s economic reform policies (“Four Modernisations”) are
widely seen as setting the stage for China’s emergence as a world
economic power.
› Some non-Chinese producers of rare earths are stepping
up their efforts in advance of possible shortages. According
to the Tribune, Avalon Rare Metals (Toronto, Canada) is trying
to open a mine in northwest Australia. Molycorp Minerals
(Greenwood Village, Colorado) hopes to reopen a mine in
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