• doingthestuff@lemy.lol
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    15 days ago

    Didn’t China halt all exports of rare earth minerals to the whole world?

    The minerals aren’t actually rare, they’re just in low concentrations and difficult to extract. It’s just a matter of time before thet set up mining and precessing somewhere else. It won’t be in the US though. It’ll be somewhere with super cheap labor and no regulations or environmental protections. Which is why it was in China in the first place.

    • grue@lemmy.world
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      15 days ago

      It won’t be in the US though. It’ll be somewhere with super cheap labor and no regulations or environmental protections.

      Just wait; Trump’s “policies” will ensure the US meets both those criteria.

    • Tenderizer78@lemmy.ml
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      10 days ago

      They already mine rare earths in America and Australia, it’s just production’s slow because there’s not much demand for gourmet rare earths.