
Getting Serious about “Critical Materials” - LinuxBender
https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/we-need-to-get-serious-about-critical-materials/
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emptybits
The US relies on China more than any other country for its critical
minerals.[1] I wonder how much this plays (or _should_ play) into the current
US-China trade war and all its noisy politics right now.

After China, the US is most dependent on Canada for minerals. Canada can't
supply _everything_ (lithium comes to mind) but at least that seems to be an
alliance the US has a better chance to preserve.

See page 12 of the linked USGS report in the article: [1] [http://prd-
wret.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/assets/palladium/...](http://prd-wret.s3-us-
west-2.amazonaws.com/assets/palladium/production/atoms/files/mcs2019_all.pdf)

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burfog
Lithium is available in seawater. We can have as much as we want.

Seawater was also the source of magnesium for the US before China took over
that market.

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Nasrudith
This feels like a MIC protectionist push for mining more than anything. With
the massive navy claiming world wide shipping as the defacto world reserve
currency is unreliable? Get real.

The number of viable cut off scenarios is vanishingly small - especially if it
excludes catasophies that moot the point utterly.

