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China has near global monopolies on these exports, accounting for 98% of global gallium production, 93% of germanium production, and 49% of antimony production.
Not sure if this will help prevent war or accelerate war.
If I gather anything from the more knowledgable people in the comments it is that the US needn't worry, because these resources aren't just exported by China, but also by Russia and no one else in the world. So they just need to cash in those years of Russian goodwill they've built up and this shouldn't be a problem.
Are you telling me that being blindly antagonistic in every corner of the globe simultaneously actually has consequences? Because that sounds like Russian disinformation.
No, it will be fine. Considering how much of the Earth's surface is taken up by Israel and Taiwan I'm sure there is an endless supply of rare earth minerals to go around.
Well 2/3 of the comments here a jokes barely talking about the issue so idk.
Imo is if American tariffs and sanctions didn't work back in 2022 why should it work for anyone else? China isn't about to police world trade flows in order to make sure these exports wont end up in the US. In practical terms this is just incentivizing the black market supply for it. You should rather temper your expectations that this will actualy have a meaningful long term effect at all.
Yes NATO artillery stocks are low but clearly the US doesn't give a fuck about it given the Ukrainian missile escalation this recently so its one of those things that technicaly ought to matter but in reality doesn't at all. Yeah Ukraine is even more assured to not get more supplies and that changes nothing given they lost this war years ago already.
I think this is an apples and oranges situation. China is not sanctioning or tariffing, they are banning exports of specific items for industries that their government is entirely in control of. The US can say tarrifs this and sanctions that but the private companies can do whatever they want, the US has no real power over them. China has unilateral control over these minerals and nearly every nation that trades with them has a strong incentive to not only follow whatever boundaries China sets for the minerals, but many of these nations are probably also happy to to comply because they don't have good relationships with the US either. If any one is middle manning them to the US, China is approving it, and I'd bet that if they say not to, it won't happen.
If anything I'd be worried about nations like Bolivia who also have some of these metals because the US could be more incentivized to destabilize them for mineral access.
I honestly believe it is the intent of the US to go nuclear and destroy the advanced economies of the world to recreate the post world war 2 order where the rest of the world is in ruins except their shining city on a hill
agree, which is why they wrecked the EU economy
DPRK will get trigger happy with their nukes if the US gets too close to doing this
Antimony is a rare earth mineral needed for the production of all modern artillery shells. The US has no antimony mines. China controls its extraction and owns like 90% of the mines in Hunan province. Other mines are located in Russia and South Africa. Bolivia is the second highest producer behind China. Pretty much no other nation produces it. That's it. Four countries.
Bolivia is the second highest producer behind China
Aw fuck. Looks like we'll start seeing mass protests in Santa Cruz
the feds literally tried to kill Evo Morales like a few weeks ago! he said it himself. the people who tried to kill him were not locals https://youtu.be/YfrNXlYbwlY
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
While Antimony is certainly rare (contextually) and an earth mineral, using those terms are incorrect in the greater sense - One shouldn't confuse it (as another reply did) for a 'rare-earth metal' or rare-earth element (REE) which is a wholly different group of elements with geo-political contexts.
Antimony is a metalloid (not quite a metal) and is about as scarce as silver, tin and iodine in the Earth's crust.
Thanks for the context. Additionally, whether or not a metal is rare is a lot less important as to whether or not it can be found in concentrations good enough for extraction on an industrial scale. That's where Hunan province comes in. They got the mines with the concentrations to make it worthwhile and they've got the economic and political willpower to get those mines running because it's what they need. For that to happen in America we'd literally need to fully fund these publicly but of course we'd keep any profits private. Think of all the corruption and inefficiency you can imagine and there you'd have it.
Corruption? In America? I've got a map that says otherwise
The US national stock pile is set to be depleted in 2025.
It's fucking crazy such a simple weapon hasn't been simplified in its supply chain demand for over 100 years. Antimony is literally used to harden the metal casings of the shells. That's fucking it. Seriously. That's fucking it. For 100 years the greatest most capitalisticalist empire on earth couldn't figure out how to more sustainably harden artillery shells without using a rare earth metal.
It's also a component for stable and reliable fuses.
But yeah, I agree. You'd think there would be other options. There probably are. But in America's hubris they most likely presumed they could just bully anyone into being suppliers for these materials.
If the tariffs on solar panels are any indication, this is just going to be an economic stimulus for China's neighbors, who will be able to sell Chinese minerals to the US at what I at least hope will be a generous markup.
That’s exactly what is going to happen lmao the U.S. acts like it can do to China what it does to Cuba. Too late for that no buddy, you sent all of your production there!
Same thing happened with honey. Suddenly Vietnam's honey exports magically increased to more than their domestic production. Of course nobody cared because it's all theater.
Really cool and good how we as a country have imperial boomerang’ed so hard that this country is choosing to selectively cherry-pick to have all the bad of the free-market with none of the good.
Economics is when you have blind faith cult adherence to the money line, right?
Capital E Economics, the state religion
thats definitely the US econ department
I don't know if it's obvious to folks here or not but these are common for doping silicon chips so they can work as computers. Similarly useful for solar panels.
If US chip companies don't have substantial backup stocks they're screwed.
Whoever has the other 2% of the gallium supply sweating rn
Its Russia lmao and they account for >50% of remaining gallium production
Now watch 
invade some random African Country which has these resources.
MoA on this
Mirror Action - China To Block 'Dual Use' Exports To U.S. War Mongers | Moon of Alabama
this post has been certified brainworm-free by trans-comrade-loving hexbear patriots ✅
gallium
germanium
it would be really funny if china just started referring to e*ropean countries as if they were provinces of the roman empire again
Death to America
