Countries Scramble to Find, Protect Rare Earths

By Joel ScanlonFeb 15 2011

China’s stranglehold on rare earth metals has given jitters to every major economy both developed and developing worldwide after it announced that it would begin restricting export of the minerals last year.

However while other countries are scrambling to find alternative sources China still continues to hold up to 95% of the global rare earth market.

In 2009 the Australian Foreign Investment Review Board had blocked a bid from China to control a rich rare earth deposit. The Chinese government owned China Non-ferrous Metal Mining group had offered Lynas Corp Australian $252 million for a 51% stake in the Mount Weld rare earth mine. The cash strapped company was not allowed to get funds from China to resume development of the mine as there was concern that the deal would undermine non Chinese buyers.

The Afghanistan officials are hoping to help out the global rare earth shortage with their scattered deposits which were evaluated at $3 trillion by the geological survey conducted by the Americans. However poor infrastructure development and security concerns are likely to make fulfilling that potential promise an uphill task.

With rare earth minerals being required for manufacturing everything from cell phone, to electronic cars, to missiles and solar cells there is always going to be a demand for the high tech material as raw material from the global markets.