'Quad' nations launch plan to stop China making critical minerals into Unobtanium India, Japan, USA and Australia have launched a “Critical Minerals Initiative” they hope will harden supply chains. The four nations comprise a loose bloc called “The Quad” that stages an annual meeting of foreign ministers. This years’ gabfest took place last weekend, and the resulting joint statement said the bloc is “deeply …
On a cost basis people were happy for China to have massive stranglehold on "rare earths" * as the price was right (& mining & refining is often a relative "dirty" & energy expensive process, so avoids those hassles) as it would have been difficult to compete on price (& people are not keen on "dirty" / high energy use industries so avoided that issue).
Countries could have taken a long term security of supply approach & made sure they had mining & refining setup but as that would be seen as wasted money (as cost of the "rare earths" they produced would likely be higher than what the Chinese retailed them at).
Typically there's a big conflict between security of supply & going for cheapest supplier to keep costs down model (see it in lots of areas, not just "rare earths" e.g. in UK, we produce nothing like enough food for our population but rely on "cheap" food from elsewhere)
* Using that as general term, not the chemically accurate usage.
Indeed.
The West (as it is politically called) is simply reaping the rewards of the century-old mentality that places shareholder return above all else.
Shareholders are going to have to learn that looking at what costs the least is shortsighted and short-term thinking. Instead of shareholder first, we are going to have to find a way to transition to a "survival of the company first", and that transition is going to be very, very hard to accomplish.
"Countries could have taken a long term security of supply approach"
Playing devil's advocate, it must be said that the strategy was also aimed at integrating China into the world's trade networks to foster peaceful relations. That largely worked. Companies cannot be accused of dangerous behavior wrt China when their governments advocate better trade relations and more trade volume.
And I must say, China cannot entirely be faulted for the current animosity. US politics were not exactly de-escalating.
While many agreements were, indeed, designed to integrate China in world trade and, therefore, reduce its incentives to be disruptive, there's no excuse for allowing it to become so dominant in any single field. Other countries have the ores, but we decided that it was too expensive to set up alternative processing and refining capabilities.
One of the Vulture subeditors' better efforts. ;)
Unobtanium ~ 235U92 ? Hopefully not unless a visit from a B2 is desired.
While a citizen of one of the "quad" I still think it's the height of Trumpanal hypocrisy for our four nations to blame the PRC for our chronic lack of investment in exploration, mining and processing of our own critical minerals resources (also pretty much applies to manufacturing generally.)
The US restrictions on the transfer of advanced technology to the PRC, while arguably wise, always entailed reciprocal restrictions on equally crucial resources that the PRC controlled were inevitable.
To claim otherwise is both incredible and implausible.
Canada ( yes i am one of " them " rugged creatures from the north " canucks ) Is on the path to beating China as supplier of rare earths. Quoting : " The G-7 member announced in December a plan to ramp up the production of these minerals, with Canada having one of the largest deposits. Canada is estimated to have over 15.1 million metric tons of rare earth oxide. " While the world stands by , we're building roads and a terminal in northern Quebec and Labrador to start shipping out. Mines take a bit of time to set up and go but we're there. China will , very soon , be just another player on the field. Canada is big and we have a lot of resources.Not mentioning this fact in the article is missing the mark.
Once Canada becomes a supplier of rare earths - Do you think it will make Trump or his successor more or less inclined to want to own Canada for America?
While investing in mining and processing I might suggest it would also make sense to invest in defence and security.
