Beijing has suspended exports of certain rare earth minerals and magnets that are crucial for the world’s car, semiconductor and aerospace industries.

  • metaStatic@kbin.earth
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    2 days ago

    The fact they where supplying foreign militaries in the first place is hilarious.

    as far as magnets are concerned there are better designs out there that are not being pursued because neodymium is so much easier.

    So much of the modern world is built on what is easiest not what could be better if we put in the least little bit of effort.

      • WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        and profit is more important than everything; including quality of life and national security!

        • AfricanExpansionist@lemmy.ml
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          2 days ago

          Well sure.

          But when the lowest-hanging fruit is all harvested, reaching for the next available thing requires investment and so quarterly profits start dropping. Once the investments have been paid for, profits will never come back to where they were previously so it’s always diminishing returns

          • SynopsisTantilize@lemm.ee
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            2 days ago

            Yes and since the advent of the smart phone I haven’t seen any tangible evidence the next “thing” is here for them to dump money into. (Tangible, not software based)

            • AfricanExpansionist@lemmy.ml
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              2 days ago

              Exactly this!

              They’re pretending it’s AI, or cryptocurrency, but neither has any use case that anybody wants or needs aside from money laundering and homework cheating

    • MonkderVierte@lemmy.ml
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      2 days ago

      as far as magnets are concerned there are better designs out there that are not being pursued because neodymium is so much easier.

      Like what?

      • metaStatic@kbin.earth
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        2 days ago

        yeah, I noticed I just said magnets like other permanent magnets could be better or something …

        Thanks for calling me on this.

        I was talking about motors and Induction isn’t in fact explicitly better. I think they could be if we have no other choice but to throw research at them but for right now there have fairly equal trade offs.

        • MonkderVierte@lemmy.ml
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          2 days ago

          Well, i hoped there were more effective materials/mixes around with less reliance on rare earth, since i’m not that into magnetic science.

  • 52fighters@lemmy.sdf.org
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    2 days ago

    From what I understand, China’s exports of rare earths have been largely a part of finished components and that’s not been suspended.

    • Kroxx@lemm.ee
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      2 days ago

      Work in an industry that uses raw RE oxides to produce medical equipment.

      We are fucking toast if these tariffs and restrictions are kept.

      You literally can’t get some of these REs anywhere else in the world as in the natural abundance is literally only in china.

      What you said is correct I imagine but some of the REs are utilized in a raw format in us based plants.

    • themurphy@lemmy.ml
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      2 days ago

      True, but this changes the world dynamic much more than we’d think.

      Before China would sell materials and other countries would have factories to produce products from them.

      Now, China can move the production into their own country, selling their products without the middleman, but still keep the prices up.

      Factories shut down in the rest of the world and open in China. They now control the full product from material to the product sale.

      • 52fighters@lemmy.sdf.org
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        2 days ago

        I could be wrong but my impression was that this is how it already is for goods containing rare earths. That they are already manufactured largely in China and China exports them and that there’s no ban on finished products containing rare earths.