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Comment by dylan604 | Hacker News Reader

How can you say what the minerals were actually used for though is the question I always have in these types of situations. There are multiple uses of the minerals. Since I've now gotten a literal boat load of the minerals from you, I can use those minerals on other things which now frees up my personal source of minerals on the things you didn't want them used in. In the spirit of the agreement, I'm in full compliance all while achieving the thing you didn't want me to achieve. It's nothing but Pilate washing his hands

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Are you tracking that harvesting REM is a nasty business with a lot of “don’t look” environmental impacts? As such, most countries don’t do it, or have an infrastructure for it.

https://rareearthexchanges.com/best-rare-earth-mining-compan...

Plenty of US companies ready and willing. They've finally gotten an administration that is of like mind on screw the environment and dig dig dig.

So, you agree?

Agree with what? What is it that you think is a gotcha here?

Most countries don’t do it, including the US.

“Ready and willing” is quite the turn of phrase.

I've seen US numbers along 70-80% is imported. That leaves 20-30% domestic. Some of the REEs are 100% imported, so that's a different issue. But you seem to be implying that the US is 100% importing all REEs with no domestic production at all. That's not true. Yes, some production is slowed due to environmental issues. Some of it is a different nature along the lines of "why mine yours when you can buy someone else's". You keep yours in the ground until you have to get it. You have some small production just to keep the know-how, but you keep the stove down to a simmer from a boil.

> Some of it is a different nature along the lines of "why mine yours when you can buy someone else's". You keep yours in the ground until you have to get it.

My understanding is that a large part of the issue is processing capacity/ability - not mining of the ore. In fact, a significant amount of ore mined in the US is sent to China for processing. I don't think it's a simple case of the US standing up some processing plants in 1-2 years. If that were the case, wouldn't you think it would've happened by now? Is US leadership that bad that they failed to address this risk? Or - more likely - is it because solving the issue will take a lot more than some quick investment?

This is a huge issue for the US MIC. Plans (e.g. with regard to Iran) are going back to the drawing board for sure.

> Is US leadership that bad that they failed to address this risk?

I mean, quite obviously? Borne by the simple fact of... here we are discussing it?

It doesn't matter how easy, quick, or hard it is right now. What matters is leadership is so bad it was allowed to reach this point to begin with, and even a decade ago it was immediately obvious that it was a giant vulnerability that has not even started on beyond corrected in any meaningful way.

US also needs all those factories and machinery to process the stuff.

USA does not have the refining capacity which will take another 8 years to build out.

Wrong. We don’t need to build refining capacity. We just need to remind China that who’s the big dog, which we seem to be doing.

They’ll fall in line quickly enough.

Aye yea, the war will be over by Christmas!

I've heard this one before.

Operation Warp Speed 2.0

  Remember, Mommy,
  I'm off to get a Commie,
  So send me a salami,
  And try to smile somehow.
  I'll look for you when the war is over ---
  An hour and a half from now

https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Songs_and_Lyrics_(Lehrer)/So_...

I really cannot tell if this is sarcasm (seems not?) or trolling (sounds like it).

How are we reminding China that the US is a big dog? By imposing tariffs? By demonstrating our ability to do work domestically that they believe us unwilling or incapable of doing?

What does this even mean, to be a big dog in the modern world? It seems more like a large ship listing to one side … if it collapses there will be a lot of small ships damaged in the wake.

> We just need to remind China that who’s the big dog, which we seem to be doing.

Time to short the US dollar and load up on Bitcoin.

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