(July 5, 2011 at 1:49 pm)downbeatplumb Wrote: There are 600 billion tons of these 'rare earth metals' how much do they need for it not to be rare?
There is nothing rare about rare earth metals. it's a misnomer. The only thing limiting supplies is they tend to be either costly, or dirty to extract. The chinese accepted the dirty route, as a result, they more or less became the world's only supplier. The Japanese are freaking out because the Chinese embargoed the Japanese over a territorial dispute, and the Japanese suddenly discovered the Chinese can shutdown most of Japanese electronics industry by denying them raw material and the Japanese have nowhere else to turn for the stuff, hence the interest in pulling the stuff off of the sea floor.
