Exports of rare earths now require special licenses, but Beijing has yet to fully establish a system for issuing them, the New York Times reported.
  • @Imhotep@lemmy.worldEnglish
    6•4 days ago

    hoarding

    The main issue with rare earths is extracting them. It’s very polluting and labor intensive.

    China sells them so cheap it doesn’t make economic sense for most countries to extract them, but there are locations with high concentrations all over the world.

    • NatanaelEnglish
      5•4 days ago

      Yup, very few rare earth metals are actually rare in absolute terms. Most deposits simply aren’t worth the trouble.