“Heavy elements of rare lands are added as a kind of spice, admixture to maintain magnetism at high temperatures. It also improves resistance to magnet corrosion and longevity,” says Seaver Wang, director of the climate and energy team at a breakthrough institute, a breakthrough Institute, Oakland.
In addition to magnets, these elements of occasional lands can also serve a number of goals, such as metal strengthening, improvement of radar systems, and even cancer treatment. Without them, in many cases, technological infrastructure and consumer gadgets will not be able to perform at the same level – but they will continue to maintain their basic functions. “Wind turbines will be left from services 10 years earlier; electric vehicles will not last so long,” says Wang.
Lange agrees that the impact of loss of access to weighty elements of occasional lands would be somewhat possible to manage for American companies. “One place where this land is in your car is located in engines that pull up and down through the window,” says Lange. “There are ways to deal with some things that are not as funny, such as by hand leaving the windows.”
Gaps and bypass
In the past, critical mineral restrictions in China did not work well. One of the reasons is that American companies that want to buy occasional land minerals can simply go through the intermediate country. For example, Belgium appeared as a possible center of re-export, which seems to go through German-one of the Beijing minerals for the first time circumscribed in 2023-from China to the USA, According to commercial data. Because the European Union has much closer connections with Washington than with Beijing, it is arduous for the Chinese government to effectively stop this flow of trade.
Another sign that the control of Chinese exports was not very effective is that the price of critical minerals increased only slightly, because the rules were implemented for the first time, which indicates that the levels of supply remained stable. “Whatever they did in 2023, did not really change the status quo on the market, says Lange.
But the recent restrictions on China are more expansive and there is already some evidence that this time things may be different. Companies that need these elements have been forced to buy them from other companies with existing private supplies, which have become more valuable in recent weeks. “At the moment there is a very rapid escalate in share prices,” says Baskan, citing talks with rare lands’ traders.
However, in the long run, companies can find technological solutions to solve the potential lack of minerals of rare lands. For example, Tesla announced in 2023 that it reduced their use in EV engines by 25 percent and plans to get rid of them completely in the future. The car manufacturer did not explain what it would use, but Experts speculate This may turn to other types of magnets that do not rely on rare lands.
Where are American mines?
While earthly lands or generally critical minerals are often cited with semiconductors, because industries that the United States want to change best, the challenges associated with the restoration of each of them are very different.
In contrast to the creation of advanced semiconductors, which requires the utilize of sophisticated machines worth hundreds of millions of dollars and building extremely elaborate factories, critical minerals are not so arduous to produce. Technologies that bring them out and improve them are mature, and both the United States and Canada have vast natural deposits of some of them. But the mining industry has been pushed out of the West because it does not generate high value, and also very polluting.