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China's Cornering of Rare Earth Minerals Seen As
HarbingerArticle Date: Tuesday, October 23 2012
By Rebecca Day
The National Mining Association put a faster permitting process
for rare earth mineralsmining at the top of its mission-critical
list, NMA spokeswoman Carol Raulston told us. Thatday was the first
annual Manufacturing Day, co-sponsored by NMA. On the mineral
side,were the beginning of the supply chain for so many products
manufactured in the U.S., thespokeswoman said, but because of an
inefficient permitting system in this country it takes
three to four times longer to get a permit here than it does in
Canada or Australia or othercountries around the world.
The urgency to cut the time it takes to bring a mine online
stems largely from Chinasrestrictions on exports of rare earths, a
harbinger of what could follow, Raulston said,expressing NMAs
concern that India and Brazil and other countries will follow suit.
Shecited Chinas cornering of the market on rare earths such as
neodymium, used in themanufacturing of magnets for smartphones,
loudspeakers and wind turbines, which causedprices for those
magnets to skyrocket last year. Youve seen tremendous fluctuation
invarious rare earths because of Chinas back-and-forth trade
practices, she said.
As electronic devices become more sophisticated, theres more
need for these kinds of
exotic materials, Raulston said. Early cellphones used 12
different minerals inmanufacturing, compared with smartphones today
that use more than 40, she said, andTVs require 35 different
minerals. The concerns also extend to base minerals such ascopper,
she said. Even if copper demand only grows at 2 percent annually,
which shesaid was a conservative estimate, it will be hard for
production to keep up with thatdemand.
It takes seven to 10 years for a new mine to pass the permitting
process in the U.S.,Raulston said. In Canada and Australia, the
process takes two to three years, and in Chile,a large copper
producer, it takes 18 months, she said. As a result, the U.S. is
only meetinghalf of its domestic manufacturing needs for metals and
minerals, Raulston said. Chinas
huge internal demand for metals and minerals to build out its
own infrastructure, along withrestrictions on rare earth exports,
has led the global marketplace for raw materials tobecome much more
competitive, she said.
The NMA strongly supports the National Strategic and Critical
Minerals Product Act (HR-4402), passed by the U.S. House this past
summer, which would expedite the time it takesto get a mining
approved by putting timelines on various stages in the
permittingprocess. Companies have to do a lot of modeling to get
permits to mine, thespokeswoman said. If youve done modeling for
the federal or state government, the other
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level of government should accept that data so you dont have to
re-do things." Theproposed legislation is a way to speed up the
process and doesnt make changes toenvironmental requirements or the
public comment process, she said.
That legislation faces opposition from environmental groups,
including the NationalResources Defense Council. NRDC issued a
statement following the bills passage in theHouse, saying it gives
away valuable public lands to an industry that already
enjoysroyalty-free mining, gives mining companies free access
topublic lands and puts theirrights above those of all other
users.
On how increased mining would affect manufacturing in the U.S.,
Raulston noted thataccess to minerals is a concern to a lot of U.S.
manufacturers across several industriesincluding CE, aerospace and
medical equipment. General Electric has brought a lot of
itsappliance manufacturing back to the U.S. after toying with other
places, she said, sayinglabor costs have also played a role. A lot
of manufacturing moved offshore years agobecause of reduced labor
costs, but the differential is shrinking, she said. Manufacturing
inthe U.S. is not as costly on a comparative basis as it used to
be." -- Rebecca Day
Reproduced by permission of Warren Communications News, Inc.,
800-771-9202,www.warren-news.com
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