We don't want a war in the Middle East, if we can avoid it - Dick Cheney
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US is at China's mercy
THE IMPERIAL US is at the mercy of China because it can't be bothered to exploit its own rare metal resources.
Rare metals are vital for the technology industry and currently the only places they are being mined are in the glorious People's Republic of China.
However China is starting to get a bit narky about letting the rare metals out of the country for outfits which do not have factories behind the Great Wall. This is being seen as a way that China can get even more factories running in the country.
However the US has its own largely untapped reserves that could safeguard future technological innovation, according to a recent report by the US Geological Survey.
Those reserves include deposits of both "light" and "heavy" rare earth minerals, which are used to make everything from cellphones and TV displays to magnets in disk drives and hybrid electric motors.
Of course we don't know if this is necessarily a good thing. One company called US Rare Earths holds the only known US deposit of heavy rare earth ores that have a concentration worth mining.
It is set to make a killing if China follows through on its threat to stop exporting in the next five to ten years.
US Rare Earths practically stumbled upon its first rare earth minerals deposit at Lehmi Pass, on the border between Idaho and Montana, about 15 years ago.
It would take both time and money for the US to become self-sufficient in producing rare earth metals, the outfit has pointed out.
The company hopes to attract enough funding over the next six months to do some exploratory drilling at its deposits, but while there is some interest, people are not exactly rushing to invest. µ
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My grandfather sold the mineral rights to his land for $30 ages ago. If the company that owns them realizes there's a vein of richyrichyum under it, and the cheapest way to get to it is straight down, too bad for the family that lives there now.
The colonial cycle:
- Exploit colony for raw materials at low costs.
- Refine raw materials into goods.
- Sell refined goods for a profit back to colony and others.
At *China's* mercy, oh right.
Beat me to it, the US isnt at china's mercy one bit, just like we're not at the mercy of the Arab's like most people seem to think we are, yes we use mostly middle eastern oil, and the us congress wont allow new drilling in anwr or off shore near the coast lines. but theres a reason for that, like said above, use everyone elses resources first... we dont depend on other nations, we're taking advantage of them...
US Rare Earth's website is down due to their bandwidth having been exceeded.
I'm sure the mention of their company here is to blame.
Just like oil. We have huge reserves of oil that were capped by the feds back when we first started getting oil from the middle east. And some day when gas hits $17.99 a gallon, the Bush/Cheany family or HAL (Haliburton) will start selling our oil to us :P
I think the US is relying on their cultis to capture Chinese harvesters for their own good for as long as it takes the Cheese to upgrade to AP ammo.
harassing your enemies harvesters during the game can be very important for the results at the endgame.
The obvious strategy for the US is to use everyone else's rare earth minerals first, at which point they own what's left... then who's at who's mercy?
I already can see, how in "near" future space ships how fly to the Moon, Mars... to dig some rare metals... and i see space pirates flying with modified VIRGIN Space ships...
This isn't ANYTHING like the "story" you did a few weeks back, now is it?
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/1592223/rare-earth-minerals-shortage-looms
Thank god that the Americans won't have to put up with the indignity of actually owning the bounty of their land!
Imagine how awful they'd feel if they actually had a right to use the minerals beneath their feet!!!