Replies to post #27028 on The Rising Influence of Rising Affluence

[Biowatch]

China Controls Global Rare Earth Mineral Trade
Article from 2019
https://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/international-issues/china-controls-global-rare-earth-mineral-trade/

Rare earth minerals—a group of 17 elements with similar qualities—are used in hundreds of high-technology products and military equipment. Military uses include night-vision goggles, precision-guided weapons, communications equipment, GPS equipment, batteries, and other defense electronics. Rare earth minerals are also used in making very hard alloys for armored vehicles and projectiles that shatter upon impact. Non-military uses include smartphones, flat screen TVs, electric car batteries, catalytic converters in automobiles, wind turbines, and solar panels.

China controls about 90 percent of the global trade in rare earth minerals. Beginning in the 1990s, China began dumping low-priced minerals on the global market and driving other miners, including U.S. miners, out of business. China became the world’s largest producer of rare earth minerals because of its non-existent environmental regulations and low processing costs.