We have tons of rare earth ores in the USA. It is just that importing it from China is cheaper for the end users. China doesn't pay for the environmental controls and they pay their slaves workers a pittance. Now that our foreign trade balances are being balanced, things change. From FOX Business:
First rare earth processing facility outside of China to be built in Texas
Rare earth elements are used every day. They are metals that are used in everything from cell phones to cars, televisions, military jet engines and medical devices.
However, the tit-for-tat trade Opens a New Window. war between the U.S. and China, Opens a New Window. may present a challenge to the industry which heavily relies on China. The retaliatory tariffs from China on $60 billion worth U.S. goods goes into effect this weekend.
Blue Line Corp., a chemical company based in Texas, is the first and only company outside of China that can process small batches of rare earth. They just partnered with Australian rare earths mining company Lynas to build a processing facility in the U.S.
“The group of materials we're looking at doing are the heavier rare earth materials and there's no commercial plant in the world that is actually separating these materials other than inside China. And these are very strategic materials that are used for a number of high tech and defense applications,” said Blue Line Corporation CEO Jon Blumenthal in an exclusive interview with FOX Business’ Lauren Simonetti Opens a New Window. .
Good news - maybe this will stimulate the production of Thorium - a lot of these minerals (Th = Monazite Ore) are found in proximity. Cheap plentiful energy source.
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