• FiniteBanjoOP
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    6 months ago

    Well, China hasn’t been the only producer in recent decades.

    • partial_accumen@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      That is a true statement. However, as the article points out they produce 90% of the world’s supply of Rare Earth materials.

      • FiniteBanjoOP
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        6 months ago

        Sales aren’t everything. China has ~44M Metric Tons of REE reserves, Vietnam 22M, Russia 21M, Brazil 21M, India 6.9M, Australia 4.2M, USA 2.4M, Greenland 1.5M.

        However, specific metals out of the 17 have wildly different graphs, such as Palladium commonly used in military armored plating being produced mostly in Russia and South Africa. USA produces many times over as much Palladium as China reports.

        If China’s domestic use concerns are actually for military use then that’s troublesome because the metals they have are more useful for automation and electronics than anything else.

          • FiniteBanjoOP
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            6 months ago

            You’re right mb, I was confusing it with another element starting with P, like Pr or Pm, lol