PSA: rare earth's aren't rare. It's the separation from each other and the bulk of earth that makes it cumbersome. It's basically processing capacity that China has today.
Invest in local processing plants.
this post was submitted on 17 Oct 2025
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China spent the last 2 decades investing in infrastructure, energy, heavy industry and manufacturing while we were........ doing what exactly? Selling smartphone apps to each other, pumping crypto, gig economy and letting private equity gut our services?
You are correct but also are missing something. As far as tech services go, the US is (but rapidly decline as due to Trump) a titan. But like I said, right now and especially in the last 10 years they have been going through some extremely serious enshitification of the internet, internet services, and a plethora of other stuff. As far as I am concerned the past 10 years have been extremely static in a lot of development.
Where my holodecks at?
No it just the ever growing feeling of sameness and nothing new coming up.
As a young kid in the late 80s and early 90s I saw shit just go from big to bigger in only a few years. Jokes about computers becoming obsolete the moment they are shipped were everywhere. Graphics and computing power exploded in the 90s and all the way until the 2010s and... things didn't seem to be that much different. A computer I would have had in 2000 would be aching for a replacement in 2005, and the same from 2005 to 2010 and so on. But now I feel like a computer I would have had from 2015 or 2018 would not be too far behind today.
Maybe things got more efficient. But it just seemed like things haven't changed that much. I mean they did. Cloud computing has gotten huge, but in terms of users and usability things haven't budged.
The maxed out laptop I bought this year had 10x as many cores as the maxed out one I had previously from 2016 or 2017. RAM was faster and 4x larger, the clock speed was a bit higher, the storage was maybe 2x.
I definitely feel it perform significantly better. The main difference is the number of cores and the amount of RAM, and particularly how cool the CPU runs.
But my last laptop felt the same way when I bought it. I think this is mostly because developer optimization is inversely correlated to hardware spec improvements. Gross under-optimization is allowed if the hardware permits it.
I also feel that the new high-end desktop I bought last year also runs like a dream (I spent thousands of dollars on it), and I am able to do all the things I wanted to do on all my old games perfectly. But other than making AI furry smut (and it is literally my only use of AI) it isn't that much different. This is why I want my computer to last at least another 10 years before a replacement... if that is even possible.
There’s nothing to excite the regular consumer anymore.
There’s fun stuff if you happen to be wealthy.
There’s nothing for us plebs anymore.
How many years does it take to get a processing plant up and running? Longer than Donald has to live, I'll bet.
Probably, considering the average lifespan of a dementia patient. However, processing capacity could be built quickly* if it were a priority. It's just that the private sector isn't capable of creating or funding that priority on its own, so a competent government is required.
*years rather than decades
Well, since they're disappearing all of the laborers...
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Yes, resource availability isn't the issue, and "just invest more" has some massive hurdles:
- China has over 25,000 patents in the field of rare earths
- China doesn't have the strict environmental-protection regulations like much of the rest of the world. It keeps the price very low, but at great cost to its environment from toxic run-off and the like
- Complex, expensive solvent extraction processes require extensive experience that China is well ahead of the rest of the world on
- China has a highly integrated supply chain from mining to finished product manufacturing
All these mean any processing outside of China is going to be incredibly expensive and competitively unprofitable. It's not impossible to do, and removing dependence from China is probably worth it, but it's going to take a lot of capital and time to achieve and sustain.
Sure, but like, they sound rare. It's right in the name. That's why dumbass Trumpo behaves like China is hoarding rare jewels from him and cries for Mommy to do something.
Can’t we just do tariffs that cripple our already dwindling industrial capacity and give tax cuts to rich people who don’t need them?
Invest in local processing plants.
Do you want environmental degradation and pollution with processing rare earths? Because that's the main reason why many countries avoid doing it because it will be met with opposition from their electorates.
That's only because we want cheap rare earths. If we wanted rare earth's without the environmental fallout, it would be expensive even if done in China. We're simply offloading our environmental waste to others.
The reality is that China is about the only country willing to process the rare earth minerals because of how incredibly toxic it is to the local populace. Many countries could choose to invest in processing plants but are unwilling to subject their citizens to the cancers they invariably cause.
Maybe that's too generous. The wealthy don't want them around, and it's bad business to get your labor force unable to work.
I don't know if environmental protection is high on trump's list, along with the welfare of 'illegal migrants'.
Wasn't very hard to find. Trump hasn't shut up about it since he got elected.
I’ll be honest, I missed it purely because of his verbal diarrhoea.
Not hard to find, but hard to properly leverage.
This is the result of a multi-year effort by China to insulate themselves from very specific retaliatory measures i.e. leverage the USA had over them, but not any longer.
Wild that China is the only one that learned from Trump in 2016, and prepare for what was coming.
Of course, most of that is what China's been doing anyway for a couple decades, so that may be more coincidental.
it was patently obvious from the beginning of his "I want Canada and Greenland RIGHT NOW!" phase.
Donald Trump is a goddamn fucking moron
True. IIRC during his first administration he backed the U.S. out of the international treaty that governed minig ocean floor rare earth deposits because the U.S. didn't have a dispropotionate amount of power compared to other treaty signatories.
That's just China's goto for any international being, as they're literally the only ones capable/willing of processing them.
If only we knew how to... I dunno... invest in something other than Lithium. Something ubiquitous and cheap... like sodium.
Nahhhh
Nahhhh
I see what you did there
Nahhhh
*angry upvote
Your point is valid but less relevant. Lithium is an alkali metal found in different sources than rare earths, with Australia and South America producing the most.
Rare earths are expensive to refine which is why western mines and refineries have been outcompeted by China. If we were to subsidise local production we'd have an abundance, e.g. from Scandinavia.
Expensive to process safely and in an ecologically-conscious manner. Aka expensive in money but it's important to note the environmental damage these processing plants can do when unregulated.
They could've asked him about his buddy pedo Jeff as well. He gets real pissy about that
Sounds extremely rational in the context of US trade policies.