Lithium Valley Main Report 2018
cars to airplanes) has led to a similar demand growth for high performance electric motors, all using large amounts of rare earth materials. Currently standard vehicles have more than 40 magnets and 20 sensors that use REE and hybrid vehicles use about 1.25 kilos of REE magnetic material. It is expected that EV’s will use around three times more. 23 China is currently the world’s largest rare earth mining nation with estimates of China’s accounting for 79% of annual global extraction in 2017. Facing diminishing domestic reserves, China also imports rare earths for refining and reselling domestically and internationally. In 2017, 78% of US rare earth imports were sourced from China. 24 This lack of supply diversity presents a global commercial risk to companies and countries. It is China’s dominance that helps keep rare earths at the top of the ‘risk list’ compiled by the British Geological Survey that assesses the importance of minerals needed “to maintain our economy and lifestyle”. 25 China has methodically implemented a holistic policy strategy approach that has inhibited the entry of rival producers and the development of new technologies to process rare earths. China also acts to invest heavily in rare earth mines globally, maintaining continued fears of a Chinese monopoly of these strategic materials. Through its “Made in China 2025” blueprint and integrated policy and investment framework, China’s Government aims to move the country up the manufacturing value chain and dominate advanced technologies such as robotics, artificial intelligence, semiconductors and biomedicine. 26 This has been far sighted with a holistic approach that is also being applied to water and agriculture. China’s enormous and relatively closed domestic
“
"In 2010 the Chinese government blocked exports of rare earths to Japan over a dispute when Japan detained a Chinese fishing trawler. This immediately impacted critical industries in Japan including hybrid cars, wind turbines and guided missiles as there was no alternative supply."
23 https://investorintel.com/sectors/technology-metals/technology-metals-intel/high-strength-permanent-magnets-an- untapped-source-of-critical-rare-earth-metals-but-can-the-metals-be-economically-recovered/ (Accessed 19 March 2018) 24 United States Geological Survey 2018, Mineral Commodities Summaries 2018, 31 January 2018, https://minerals. usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/mcs/2018/mcs2018.pdf. (Accessed: 01 May 2018) 25 Minerals UK (2015), Risk list 2015, British Geological Survey Centre For Sustainable Mineral Development, http:// www.bgs.ac.uk/mineralsuk/statistics/risklist.html . (Accessed: 01 May 2018) 26 The State Council of the People’s Republic of China, Made in China 2025, http://english.gov.cn/2016special/ madeinchina2025/ . (Accessed: 01 May 2018)
Page 42
Made with FlippingBook Ebook Creator