[ExI] it won't work, but i have a better idea

[John Clark]

On Fri, Oct 10, 2025 at 10:50 PM spike jones via extropy-chat <
extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:


  > *The chips contain neodymium, dysprosium and yttrium. *
>

*The difficulty in obtaining rare earth elements will not affect computer
chips by much, they only need trace amounts, but electric cars or a
different matter entirely, they need a lot of them and that's a big problem
for Tesla and Elon Musk. *

*> China is not the only source of these materials.  *


*Currently it pretty much is.  *

*> The USA has mines too,*


*The problem is not that the US doesn't have rare earth elements in the
ground, and despite their name they are not even very rare. The problem is
the elements in the ore are all mixed together, and all the rare earth
elements have very similar chemical properties so it takes a lot of
infrastructure and expertise to separate them out on an industrial scale,
China has build some modern very expensive factories to do that, and even
more important, has gained a great deal of expertise in the process, but
the USA has neither the factories nor the expertise, and the same thing is
true of other Western nations.  *

*> and those are cranking up to meet the need*


*Yeah but it could take a decade to reach China's level of experience. *
*A few days ago China imposed even more restrictions on the exports of rare
earth elements to the USA as retaliation for the sky high tariffs that He
Who Must Not Be Named had put on China, so yesterday in retaliation for the
retaliation you know who imposed a 100% tariff on all Chinese goods
starting on November 1. As I said before, in a trade war everybody is a
loser. *

*John K Clark*





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