• SkunkWorkz@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    Rare earth metals aren’t even rare though. They are just not found in concentrated form like gold. And metallurgists in the past had a hard time isolating the metals that’s why they called them rare.

    It’s just that China can mine them cheaply since the Chinese government doesn’t care about labor rights and the environment. Europe and Australia has rare earth metal deposits.

    • Taalnazi@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      Europe and Australia do, but honestly, as a European, I’d rather trade with China than the US right now. Even though both are shit.

    • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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      23 hours ago

      The US has deposits too. Some of the ones our military equipment needs most are found in Zinc mines and we let our refinery capability for them lapse in the 1990’s. So all we actually need to do is get a refinery built.