China consolidates grip on rare earths

[mashman]

The government is determined to clean up the industry, said Xu Xu, chairman of the China Chamber of Commerce of Metals, Minerals and Chemicals Importers and Exporters, a government-controlled group that oversees the rare earth industry. “The entrepreneurs don’t care about environmental problems, don’t care about labor problems and don’t care about their social responsibility,” he said. “And now we have to educate them.”

heh heh heh... and the rest of the world runs crying to the WTO :... wonder what they'll get up to next? Will this Chinese policy affect NZ? Good on ya China.

[Scuba_Steve]

Awesome so China (at face value) is doing what the world should be if they really cared about environment rather than maximizing their profit using the environment as an excuse.
Oh and maybee some executions to boot "he said. “And now we have to educate them.”"

But I always like this
taking the steps to improve pollution controls in a notoriously toxic mining and processing industry. But the moves also have potential international trade implications and have started yet another round of price increases for rare earths, which are vital for green-energy products

... yea "green"

[mashman]

heh... aye, what's the real motive and how ironic that clean and green doesn't really mean clean and green (I hope it's an honest venture )... I always wondered what made a product green. How it's made, how it's used, what its production cost is etc... all of the above maybe, dunno and will probably never find out. Either way it's stirring the pot and giving me joy joy feelings watching the squeaky clean get a dose of their own medicine at the hands of a government and not the other way around.

[puddytat]

Many products label themselves as Green, but the only ones you can really trust are the ones with the right accreditation from international accrediting agencies ....like the ISO accreditation, Biogro, Demeter etc. (Hardcore) There are various others that are still pretty damn green but the bar is set somewhat lower.
Good stuff China.

[mashman]

Many products label themselves as Green, but the only ones you can really trust are the ones with the right accreditation from international accrediting agencies ....like the ISO accreditation, Biogro, Demeter etc. (Hardcore) There are various others that are still pretty damn green but the bar is set somewhat lower.
Good stuff China.

Let's hope it doesn't turn into another Kyoto or ETS (oh goody, more taxes to pay until businesses can afford to pay their own way )

[puddytat]

I have this gut feeling that the idea of a one World Govt. is slowly going to be superceded by China World Govt.
Its got hold of the purse strings for a start,& is slowly but surely getting hold of the raw material & land it needs.
The second language at schools needs to be mandarin
Dont know if thats a better or a worse scenario than the one we've got.
But whatever way I look at it,cleaning up the place is a no brainer.

[Scuba_Steve]

I always wondered what made a product green. How it's made, how it's used, what its production cost is etc... all of the above maybe, dunno and will probably never find out.

It's all to do with use ignore the man behind the curtain as it were, looking behind the curtain revels that most "green" products actually destroy the planet more than their "non-green" counterparts.

[avgas]

Perhaps they could start by cutting back on building 1 coal fired power plant a month and look at solar/wind farms......

But in their defense, the Chinese people actually are quite eco safe. Most houses have solar water heating. Where as in NZ I imagine that figure is probably less than 1/10.

[puddytat]

It's all to do with use ignore the man behind the curtain as it were, looking behind the curtain revels that most "green" products actually destroy the planet more than their "non-green" counterparts.

That probably has more to do with the accreditation process,as in they will simply be putting a sticker on it saying its green.A bit like what oil companies try to spin.
Personally I think the eco bulb is just a "feel good" spin,& it is used as an example all the time when in all reality its only the simplest of steps of a difficult process.
Cell phone manufactureres are one of the largest users of rare earth stuff. Interesting to see in that link that much ado was made about the cost of a light bulb going up,when the simple law of supply & demand especially with rare earth elements are exactly that....just like Tuna,just like Ivory. It also neglects to mention that the Defence industry is a big player in this.
Its no good blaming the greens or what ever colour we personally dont like as the Earth is finite We have to face the fact that supply of everything will always be limited & seeing weve been using cheap oil for so long to grow extra food , with cheap petroleum based fertiliser & we've ended up with a population explosion & its accompaning demand.
Avgas makes a good point re power stations.Its all rather 2 faced when you look at it, that simply. I think it has a lot more to do with the politic of a very rare material that is crucially important to large industries with a murkier end use than light bulbs

[imdying]

They're just having a big sook because they're about to get f'd in the A by the Japanese. They've been manipulating this market for quite a while, and using their position to bully the nips. Sadly for them, the nips just figured out how to suck it out of the bottom of the ocean on the cheap, so their section of the market is going to go from 95% to who knows what. The chinks are only getting what they deserve for having been pricks for so long over this issue. Fuck em.

[cave weta]

In my other business I buy a few magnets from thees guys www.dangerousmagnets.co.nz

Last invoice advised me that prices were about to DOUBLE!

[mashman]

I have this gut feeling that the idea of a one World Govt. is slowly going to be superceded by China World Govt.
Its got hold of the purse strings for a start,& is slowly but surely getting hold of the raw material & land it needs.
The second language at schools needs to be mandarin
Dont know if thats a better or a worse scenario than the one we've got.
But whatever way I look at it,cleaning up the place is a no brainer.

Pulease, a one world govt just isn't possible
I'll go for, better than the one we've got... it'll remove the ability of one party blaming the other for the current failings ... and we may, potentially, get a cleaner environment once they've forced every private enterprise out of their respective games... providing WW3 doesn't kick off along the way. (which, in a deep dark mental corner, I kinda hope happens )

It's all to do with use ignore the man behind the curtain as it were, looking behind the curtain revels that most "green" products actually destroy the planet more than their "non-green" counterparts.

I wouldn't be surprised if that was true... although there must be some form of trade off? longevity and quality replacing cheap and nasty... then again, that probably flies in the face of what the current market requires, more return for less input.

Last invoice advised me that prices were about to DOUBLE!

heh, so the lower end of the market is already going price potty... thems is some expensive magnets to begin with.