This article consists of speculation, factual misstatements, and some jingoistic China-bashing. Terrible journalism:
"Many rare earths are also geochemically rare". No, they're actually as common as many industrial metals, including copper.[1] China does control 97% of world supply, as the article states several times, but that's largely due to a lack of developed mines in the Western countries.
"If geochemistry and politics weren’t enough, though, we even have to factor in ethical concerns: Just like blood/conflict diamonds — diamonds that originate from war-torn African nations, where forced labor is used and the proceeds go towards buying more weapons for the warlord — some rare metals could be considered “blood metals.” Tantalum, an element that’s used to make the capacitors found in almost every modern computer, is extracted from coltan — and the world’s second largest producer of coltan is the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the home of the bloodiest wars since World War II." True that the mining of these minerals has occurred in the midst of some of the worst conflicts of the 1990s and 2000s, but neither tantalum nor coltan are rare earth elements, as the diagram immediately above the text clearly shows. This is just hysterics.
"Just like oil and energy, this will probably require drastic technological leaps. Instead of reducing the amount of tantalum used in capacitors, or indium in LCD displays, we will probably have to discover completely different ways of storing energy or displaying images. My money’s on graphene." That's nice, although again neither tantalum nor indium are "rare earth elements", nor does graphene possess many of the unique geochemical qualities of rare earths.
It's very difficult to accept any of the author's articles on face given this level of inaccuracy and distortion (and that's only errors via a quick skim).
"Many rare earths are also geochemically rare". No, they're actually as common as many industrial metals, including copper.[1] China does control 97% of world supply, as the article states several times, but that's largely due to a lack of developed mines in the Western countries.
"If geochemistry and politics weren’t enough, though, we even have to factor in ethical concerns: Just like blood/conflict diamonds — diamonds that originate from war-torn African nations, where forced labor is used and the proceeds go towards buying more weapons for the warlord — some rare metals could be considered “blood metals.” Tantalum, an element that’s used to make the capacitors found in almost every modern computer, is extracted from coltan — and the world’s second largest producer of coltan is the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the home of the bloodiest wars since World War II." True that the mining of these minerals has occurred in the midst of some of the worst conflicts of the 1990s and 2000s, but neither tantalum nor coltan are rare earth elements, as the diagram immediately above the text clearly shows. This is just hysterics.
"Just like oil and energy, this will probably require drastic technological leaps. Instead of reducing the amount of tantalum used in capacitors, or indium in LCD displays, we will probably have to discover completely different ways of storing energy or displaying images. My money’s on graphene." That's nice, although again neither tantalum nor indium are "rare earth elements", nor does graphene possess many of the unique geochemical qualities of rare earths.
It's very difficult to accept any of the author's articles on face given this level of inaccuracy and distortion (and that's only errors via a quick skim).
[1] http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2002/fs087-02/
(Edit: Added last line)