Rare Earth Elements: China's Vibranium?
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- Опубліковано 6 лют 2025
- Many of our favorite stories feature valuable substances with some amazing qualities. Mithril, vibranium, unobtanium, while all fictional, there are similar substances being mined in one specific place on Earth; China. Here and only here ore rich in what are called "Rare Earth Elements," are extracted and used to made some of the most cutting edge technology on the planet. What's the story behind this real-life vibranium, and how has China come to control it's entire market?
It makes more sense if you watch the video.
Music provided by bensound.com
When asked why they were hoarding rare earth metals, the Chinese replied "It's none of your Bismuth".
ua-cam.com/video/-Ds3rQdWZTA/v-deo.html
11O1OO111OOO what
Clever 😎
It litterally isn't though
@@nidhalsormali3051 I literally don't care.
“When you use them together, their usefulness increases exponentially.” INFINITY STONES IRL CONFIRMED
Just click your fingers
Oh god.....Is Infinity War coming to real life?
@@loop5720 Yes. The fallen ones are back and preparing mankind for the great battle of Armegeddon against God. An American general proclaimed they could shoot Jesus down if He came back today. As it once was, so shall it be. As in the days of Noah....
Hahahaha. It is hyperbole.
It was not a lie, after all
The REE mining in Malaysia is done by an Australian company, Lynas. Currently it's a highly controversial topic in our country. The sad part the plant/mine is located within Malaysia's largest forest reservation.
Hopefully they find a solution that suits us all.
Thanks for the lovely and informative video cheers
I honestly hope they don't do it
Stop wasting resources on useless stuff.
The solution is so simple yet so difficult.
Why should Australia go all the way to Malaysia when they claimed to have their own rare earth?
@@thomthlee Aussie is processing rare earth metal in Malaysia that was extracted in Australian soil
@@ernestchuaforever13 basically dumping all the heavy metals on us. Fuck them
Wth?! Ur videos have such high quality! And only 5000 subs?! Dude u need a million asap. Im subbin and tellin all my friends about this channel.
He's closing to 150k now!
180k!
Approaching 200k now.
@@prashantvicky 253k
Almost 300k
Atlas Pro delivers again with another mind-blowing and informative video. Seriously, I love this channel.
Thanks man! I appreciate the love :)
Well made, concise, and informative video on this most crucial subject. Thank you.
As you stated in the video, these "ROCKS" basically are everywhere! and actually VERY ABUNDANT. The only thing that makes them rare is isolating and concentrating them into useful quantities requires a chemical processing plant. It is a process not unknown or rare at all, in fact the same technology is used for mining many other types of metals such as copper, aluminum, silver and gold throughout the world...
True, there's literally millions of aluminum cans littered around the world and would be very useful to try to recycle all of it cuz aluminum is 50% conductive efficiency and great metal alloy for strength materials etc
The Rare Earth Elements (REEs) used in electronics manufacturing are not essential for the function of the device, just the miniaturization of them. We could stop using REEs in electronics manufacturing but your smart phone would be 3-4 times bigger, run at half the current speed and 10-20% hotter.
Franklin Allen
You dont call that essential?!
@@Ambigious I don't. I think the trend towards smaller, more expensive, and easier to break devices is just idiotic. Also given that I can't tell the difference in performance between my five year old HTC One running optimised cfw, and my new Pixel, I think the development has stagnated to the point that the only difference between devices are gimmicks at best.
If you cant tell tthe diffrence between a new phone and 5 year old phone I dont think youre the one to speak about that makes a diffrence tbh
@@Ambigious I think your missing the point. With optimised firmware you can get a five year old flagship phone to perform in a manner indistinguishable from a new flagship phone running new, non-optimised firmware. The increase in processing power and features have been such minor iterations over the last five years that they are negligible at best. The only reason I even have the new phone is because it is my job to stay at the forefront of technology.
So in other words, your iphone becomes the size of macbook? So you think customers would be fine holding a laptop to their ears to make phone calls? LOL
Good video because it does not have the obnoxious background music/noise. The video also has a good subject and good content.
might be the best comment I've ever gotten lol
Atlas Pro What about this comment?
so why shouldnt the US explore theirs too since they also have a lot of the rare earth elements and the resources as well as the capital to explore them too?
why blame china if they wanna reduce thier supplies?
sorry guys tbh.
its only today that i saw these replies! and some of them was last year!
thanks for the replies!
Because wildlife organizations want to protect the land above the REEs. REE mining is extremely damaging to ecosystems.
They want China to use up its resources and the us hordes theirs
k2d10tode11 US doesn't have a lot of rare earth deposit. Small quantities are found in US.
7:57
cost cost cost...chinese minor willb e always cheaper than american one, i know you try hard to reduce cost in importing illegal labor per million :p but chinese can do the same with importing asian indian minor !!
Always love your videos, dude! You expand on topics in ways that truly help to teach people new things and are very concise with your explanations. I admire that, keep it up!
Such a well-documented video! Thumbs up!
Just build some Liquid Flouride Thorium Reactors and you'll have rare Earth elements as a byproduct.
Agreed!
Don't talk silly, that would stop the gravy train for GE.
Never gonna happen.
I've always wondered why we don't have such Thorium Reactors already. I've heard that the waste cannot be used to make weapons but I don't know how true this is. Is Thorium really such a good choice for nuclear energy or is this just hype from 'big thorium', so to speak?
@@sirsiralot7635 Thorium reactors produce U233 which is what undergoes the chain reaction and which can and has been used in prototype nuclear bombs. Apparently the issue is that some U232 is also produced in the reactor and this has to be almost completely removed. Plutonium bombs are a lot less finicky.
Straight to the point. Great work.
The US has plenty of RE metals. At present, the cost of extracting them is artificially high due to stupid US laws concerning processing of radioactive materials. Usually RE ores contain Thorium and consequently are radioactive. Thorium is an alpha emitter which is easy to shield. All it would take is a change in US laws to make us self-sufficient in RE's. Beside, the Thorium would be useful in electrical generation.
@YK KAO you see, opening mines has a huge cost, especially if you want them to be safe and environmentally friendly, it also takes quite a while, if the US or any other country starts onpening mines and china catches wind of it they could remove the export limitations to make those mines unprofitable again, so its actually a big risk, its only really worth it if china either bans exports almost completly or if they start to run out.
Build thorium fueled molten salt reactors and the problematic thorium becomes a more valuable product then the rare earths themselves.
Yeah we can't even get stable internet services how can we trust radioactive waste disposal? The will just dump it in old alabama mines.
@@gladehartdreamer5620 wouldnt everyone just mine old electronics then? In that case the metals are already refined and the plastics just have to be crushed and separated?
@@Patchuchan If you have to build a radically new, untested, nuclear reactor type to make the fuel more valuable, that would be the tail wagging the dog.
very informative, thank you for your efforts
very nicely put together and explained - and I am a geologist.
1:36 - That's a really outdated copy of the Periodic Table. Elements up to 118 have been synthesised, now have official names. Check the Periodic Videos channel for the names, if you're interested.
Japan JUST found a massive deposit of REE.
REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
amazing, succinct, & pertinent information !
It's funny how many people are arguing down in the comments below that China imposed export quotas to protect the environment. China didn't impose production quotas, just export quotas to give local manufacturing an unfair trade advantage.
It is total legitimate for a country to protect the resources and people living on top of it!!! Did you ever see US share their resource to the world cheaply?? Hypocrisy!!
@@justmanuel2000 NO. China made trade agreements with other countries, which gave them free access to those markets then broke those agreements with the export quotas. They can't have it both ways.
@@BobbyIronsights First, US had done so many contract breaking in the world but still wanted the benefit from it. Without showing evidence which you claimed, it just a BS of your comment.
@@justmanuel2000 They said it in the video, that's all the evidence he needs. Also the Us did share their resources to the world cheaply in a time called the industrial revolution. Dude, do you seriously not know basic history? I'm not sure how the education system is where you're from but I learned this in middle school. If you didn't know about this I highly recommend watching some documentaries and learning about world history before going online and trying to argue with people.
@@traceletz6786 I also learned about Columbus discover America too. This is the problem of US education. They only tell you some true but not all. Go to study the history from other countries who describe truly about Americans' history.
Wow just wow! 😯😱
Very informative ! Clear narration ! easy to understand content ! Thanks for sharing !
These elements are so rare and some people just destroys their phones for UA-cam views
China transfers food production and workers to other nations to get out of the way of the rare earth pollution.
Nice.
Make such video of other metals also.
Whenever talking about China, the screen becomes Hong Kong. Lol
Good work man
I'm happy that I stumbled across this channel a few weeks ago and decided to subscribe. Interesting and useful subjects. Well-chosen conclusions. Excellent visual presentations.
I really appreciate it!
I was hoping by the tittle of the video it would explain to me the qualities and uses of Vibranium but the video only talked about everything else .. but it is still and great video worth watching . Thanks
Probably
There's a tag in the back of it said *"Made In China"*
You make quality videos ... keep it up
Another excellent video, keep up the great work. It's a damn shame your videos have so little views on youtube, hopefully one day your channel becomes extremely popular (like, say CGP grey-level of popularity)... Really, your videos are more interesting and better edited than pretty much all informational content on here.
Thanks man! I really appreciate it :) Maybe I'll get there one day
Not even an American ship.... That's a Royal Navy flag
Lol, If China has the most rare earth elements it's "not good" but if US has it, it's okay?
I know, right? It's so hypocritical.
That’s Right. What kind of red-blooded ‘Merican r u anyway? Oh, wait. There’s no such thing as an American genetic subgroup?? You mean the “American” BY DEFINITION is a complex admixture of other races and genetic leftovers??? That sounds like something they would teach you in one of those Socialist Ivory Tower institutions they call Universities. Wait, you’re not even an American?? You’re from some Foreign Country?? What Audacity you have, coming on our National Airwaves telling us The Facts about World Politics?..? Don’t you know that WE RUN THE WORLD NOW!, ITS CALLED THE UNITED STATES OF THE WORLD, BABY!! If you don’t like it, go find another Planet, Bucko!
@@alanwerner8563 You think its American hegemony that's at stake? Every country in the world worries about overdependence of imports/exports into one country. But you wouldn't know that because you never bothered to pick up a book or look through economic articles. A few years back China tried to destroy Japan's electronics industry by suddenly cutting off its rare earth metal exports to Japan. Joke's on them, the Japanese just brought out new technologies that rely less on rare earth metals or tried to find new exporters and many Chinese export companies died out instead.
What a joke question if an American. Yes, it is perfectly acceptable to have resources that your military or economic rival does or does not. What a privileged life you lead…worry about pronouns too?
@ofcv1238 Seems like you worry more about pronouns than I do since you brought it up from nowhere. Completely off topic too, it's like the concept of that lives inside your head rent free.
China partnered with Greenland Minerals to develop their REE's too. They have a 80% stake in the company.
Mountain Pass mine reopened after reorganization but closed a few years later.
Fascinating! I had no idea this existed. Time to go onto a Wikipedia binge!
Glad you enjoyed!
deenr qqwe: Indium is necessary for touch panels. No indium, goodbye smart phones, etc. Electric cars are unquestionably the wave of the future, as are windmills. Both *require* neodymium, as do powerful magnets when used in pretty much any application.
Although this video doesn't address it, Thorium is likely to power the future. Molten Fuel Reactors (often referred to as MSRs) such as LFTRs, are the future of clean nuclear power, and people who tell you that there is no such thing as clean, safe nuclear, don't know what they're talking about. I recommend Gordon McDowell's fine channel on next gen reactors, especially thorium reactors.
Last year they found billions worth of rare earth metals in Kiruna, Sweden - would be nice if you covered that in a future video too (though you might want more data to accumulate before you do a full video on it).
also most things produced using rare earth metals are produced in china
that too is shifting...
Africa? LOL! That continent is already being mined for many years, China is already sucking up lots of rare metals there. As for India their nation will only become more SHITTIER than it already is.
Not the case.
Your prediction was right, it's just started with US, China trade war.
You missed Coltan, DR Congo and Rawanda, the Congo being the biggest producer.
Rare Earth Mining exists or existed recently in Australia and also in California Mojave Dessert. The largest mine in the world operated for decades in california by a company called MolyCorp... The mine is fully constructed and just only partially operating. The California mine has been owned and operated as subsidiary of Chevron corporation in the past. It also supplied rare earth minerals for US Military uses for decades.
Mining this left the river extinct of life for many years here at southern China,where rain and life is aboundant
wow...
Remember when this man had 6k+ subs? Well now he's on 300k+ subscribers...
Nahh forgot that
This program is really detailed and informative, great job!
KAWAIIDDF yeah but he forgot Congo
Wow what an amazing video, you got my sub
Isn't the view on China kinda biased? Like China is trying to be more green, it produces the most green energy on the world yet no one talks bout it, nor how China is the only nation winning against expanding deserts????
Yeah... they also have 're-education' camps for religious people, but people don't talk about that either.
(Also, people do talk about china's renewables, anybody knows that).
China is a very polluting country that is trying very hard not to be. So calling it both environmentally destructive and environmentally progressive isn't inaccurate.
@Di Di june 4th tiananmen square massacre
well said!
@Di Di your basically saying ethnic cleansing is okay? Yep um you type of people is What's wrong with humanity
Good video. Well boo. Thank you for explaining this situation. I would be interested in more videos like this about various topics. Also never really soothing voice.
Today it's 31st May 2019 and China has started playing it's Vibranium Geopolitics, so again another step.......by the way, this channel is way ahead of its time, great job buddy
0:32 AND Captain America. Let’s not forget that Captain America’s Shield is made out of Vibranium too.
Smart money is to learn how to recycle the REM's from obsolete technology
Amazing video and I loved it. He merged two different takes at 5:23. Not sure if anyone else caught that. Nothing wrong with it. Just mentioning that I noticed (;
Shhhhhh
thanks man
very Informative and, Intellectually Sound. Thanks for Sharing.
Very informative vid very nice
3 years later and the Mountain Pass mine is back open and supplies 16% of the world supply with more projects underway. Turns out you were correct when you said control might change soon as we appear to be approaching that point now.
Yeah, and thats a good thing! We are way to dependent on China as it is.
Great report. Thank you.
REPORT???????
4:17 I don't see that windmill VIBRATING!!!
two videos n i already like this guy's presentation
No company in US wants to end up as another Molycorp.
Ask the ex-shareholders how they feel about Molycorp !
It's not about rare earth deposits, but about how costly and how dirty and polluting it is to refine such rare earths.
Map highlights looks like I'm playing C&C.
Unobtainium was invented by one of the characters in the movie The Core (THE CORE (2003) - Official Movie Trailer)
Malaysia? Nice! My country, good to know.
The single largest problem with rare earth extraction is thorium - very slightly radioactive and _SHOULD_ be a valuable nuclear fuel. They can be used in LFTR designs.
The hard part is "disposing" of the thorium - and the odd part is that if we developed LFTR reactors then "Rare earth" mines would be thorium mines with rare earths as a side business.
Thank Richard Nixon for killing research into this in 1973
We have US Marines guarding Chinese mining in Afghanistan. Rare Earths, Gold etc. That's why we are not supposed to leave that country. There's a dormant Rare Earth mine in the Sierra mountains of California, East of Los Angeles . I'm sure there are more high percentage Rare Earths there, & in most Western States. Do we want to mess up the environment even more than we have already ? I suppose the answer is yes, sorry to say.
The main reason China dominates rare earth metals is because they used price dumping to kill the competition and their government subsidizes the mines.
Low cost rare earths was one of the reasons they were able to come to dominate the consumer electronics industry despite not using as much automated manufacturing as countries like Japan and South Korea.
But their mines have started to run out of economically viable ores which is why they cut exports and now seek sources in places like Africa.
If China runs out of cheap rare earth they loose much of their edge esp with their labor costs going up.
@anshu lieyi Which would be fine if they would develop their own tech rather than stealing it from others.
Informative and true..
mithril is probably some titanium with rare earth element enhanced
XD
It's apparently a scandium-aluminum alloy.
Imagine if a single country have all of these:
1. Fossil Fuels
2. Phosphate
3. Uranium
4. Rare earth metals
5. Helium
I read previously that rare earth elements aren't rare (they're as common as copper), but while not technically rare, they're pretty evenly distributed rather than appearing in pockets like other elements. So that's what makes them rare.
This vid was so interesting! I love it!!!
Thousands of years ago....
China: waaaaa Im a baby and im uselesssss
The world: haha I steal stuff from you
Today...
China: Hah we have irl vibranium
The world: What is air
I thought china has always been a production powerhouse
Where is the nice landscape with the white rocks that we see at 8:50?
Indians have even cheaper labor
But they don't mine Rare earth material , neither have infrastructure for manufacturing yet
Dont allow them i dont want scam calls in the future
India needs roads, tracks, ports, and most importantly, *TOILETS* .
@@iamyoda7917 fun facts is these gypsy's have toilet they don't like to use it, simply because they don't believe in concept of sleeping and passing motion in same place or with in 30 metres.
They don't believe in sanitation?
They say the best way of wiping a hard drive is to put a magnet to it yet the hard drive has magnets in it XD
So you mean China is crazy and lawless that's why they profit from REE, but u claimed the US is aspiring to do thesame. Conspiracy is immortal lol
This World Trade Organization seems very shady and very one-sided. USA, EU, and Japan vs China.
Apparently they can bully nations into sharing some resources (like radioactives and rare earths). But can't bully nations into sharing other resources (like petroleum).
@@pwnmeisterage or maybe it is because China has a history of cheating which the others don't? China plays fair when it is forced to play fair. The excuse is "we need to build up our industry". That was fine 50 years ago. Now what they're doing is extortion on a grand scale. They seek monopolistic control pretty much across the board.
@@john3pq or USA cheating on china. The boxer war stole china's wealth to fund many companies like AT&T and other companies. It even helped develope new york to become a industralize city with huge buildings.
@@ayingchanda : What happened a century and more ago is well in the past. What has happened and continues to happen to the present is not. China simply does not follow the same international rules which the other nations follow in the 21st century. They continue to lie, cheat and steal so extensively that it is clear that it is an intentional aspect of nation policy. One has only to look at her claims to the South China Sea - We won't militarize anything... But my, what pretty military bases they have constructed!
And to suggest that they have ownership of the entire South China Sea to the exclusion of all of the other neighboring nations is simply a farce. Even if they had a claim hundreds of years ago, the world has moved on. We see what happens in the Balkans and the Middle East when people continue to fight wars over claims which are centuries old; China's policy is simply the same - trying to go back to what existed (maybe, and that's a really BIG maybe...) hundreds of years ago but which has not existed in any remotely modern times is simply absurd. There is a difference between a government and a region. The current Chinese government has no proper claim to the region, and the previous governments no longer exist. If anything, assuming the Chinese logic, then Taiwan has the better claim by far...
No, the Central Kingdom is not going to be the ruler of the world, nor does Chinese ancestry mean that you are a subject of the tyrannical kleptocracy which is the Chinese Communist Party. What happened at Tienanmen Square, what is happening in Hong Kong, and the disappearance of hundreds since Xi entered the picture graphically demonstrates the moral, ethical and legal corruption of the Chinese government. They did that all on their own, and certainly not at the behest of the West.
@@john3pq there is a reason WHY China wants the South China Sea, it is because of the US military base and lili pad base built around her. Youre very one sided on this, as always its you stupid fools who listen to western medias more and just be one sided and not even giving a damm about China's side. China needs the the south china sea is to counter American military bases around her. They, china, already built one in spratly's island. China does not have a choice shes a super power and by the looks of it USA doesnt want her(USA) power threatened.
There are huge deposits in the US, we just need to strip-mine *HUGE* chunks of the United States. You might be able to guess why that hasn't been popular. There was an old man a few years back that was working hard to promote opening up several new mines in the US, but he said environmental restrictions would have to be eased way back before that could happen. Getting these elements is a nasty and toxic business.
Replacing oil with solar energy would drive up the demand for these rare earth metals even more, sadly.
The only green energy is USING LESS energy.
geothermal, hydroelectric, wind energy, burning up trash and filtering the smoke... I live in a country where our whole society had curfews. After a certain hour electronics stopped working, it was horrible for the economy and cultural life.
China is also mining REE in Afghanistan and South Africa. They have been allowed to maintain a defacto monopoly on the extraction of REE worldwide.
Oh, the neodidlium? Cool
But, promethium.....hmm we gota keep that thing a secret, unless we want mechanicum of mars on our asses
What are your sources? Where did you obtain these facts?
To process rare earth materials to final usable products are very damaging to environments as well, beside dig out of the ground. In fact, the Chinese took all risk with little profit, they should just stop doing it.
Little profit? Yeah lol
Neodynium was used on all modern gadget , car and airplanes.
Any source on why its good for plants or life stock?
And they banned huwaei. Great! This would be fun to watch.
Not so much for the consumer
@@silvers2211 Ik, but I meant for the companies in US which has their manufacturing plants there.
@@Blitzkrieg63 Yeah I'm opposed to monopolies be it by from the U.S or China.
Hawai*
Nidhal Sormali *hawaii, *huawei
"As China clamps down further on their exports, they've begun to tip the scales against themselves and have made rare earth mining and processing profitable outside of their borders, which is why we see so many countries just beginning to develop their own deposits. China has even tried to purchase and control mines outside of their borders in attempts to keep control over the industry. But, like at the end of Black Panther, this control might change soon.
"
Good work!
Like you said, rare earths are not rare and they are spread all over the world. Every mine can be converted to rare earth production in addition to the production of whatever they are already mining. Gold, Silver, Copper, Nickel, uranium, thorium, cobalt, silicon, and all the rest. It is just a matter of going through the steps to remove the metals from the ore.
If there is a will there is a way.
Forgive my ignorance, but would asteroid mining be a potential source?
so ya think mining an asteroid is more cost effective than here on earth? ya thats pretty ignorant lol
When China has something valuable. Everybody wants it.
Namaste Bois yes but China’s has a fascinating history of
being looted
oh man hittin' us with that bensound summer right there at the beginning
Supply and demand, China knows the way :)
New information for me. Thanks.
RE North Korea? RE Afghanistan? No mention?
Imagine having the AUDACITY to demand something that doesn't belong to you just because you want it and have the power to force submission......
陆翔 agreed, China’s bullying of other southeast Asian countries for islands in the South China Sea needs to stop
imagine having the greed and lack of morals to keep such vital materials for the technological, economical and cultural development of the world to yourself, being capable of throwing the whole planet in the 1900s.
can't it be recycled from already built products ?
yes and we do that already
@@EvanHT
share the tech then ?!?!...for some profit ie.
Entire country are like
" Stop polluting your country , China. Also we need more minerals "
Uh... 4:11 Electric cars don't have engines. They have motors. Hybrid cars have engines and motors. Diesel/Gas cars have engines.
Just a minor nitpick for accuracy.
Seen as you're splitting hairs already, the word engine means a machine with moving parts that converts energy to motion, the motor being the engine in the case of the electric car.
Just a minor nitpick for accuracy.
pick on bro, pick on, nobody really cares. this is the internet
I mean, he also says that Canada has discovered REE in Ontario and Quebec but then specifically mentions Hoidas lake which is no where near either of those provinces (it's in Saskatchewan) so as with most UA-cam videos I wouldn't believe it's 100% accurate.
very well done
If someone finds there is back door in the RE will US ban RE import the same way for Huawei products.
Okay, so. Listening to this video, I was thinking(anthropologically) about the natives from the amazon, where the ground isn't very fertile. Now maybe they were much more advanced than we thought, and they knew about these elements. Then used them to make their fertile earth to grow food and survive?
NONESENSE, rare earths are found in many places the only problem is, is that the us decided to get all there metals from one place China, but dont you worry old mines will reopen soon. all because the us of a dont want China to have a monopoly here, ps while you are at it usa, perhaps you can find some purpose for all the Thorium you are digging up with all that rare earth ?
Last i heared you had some project in oakridge, to make good use of that stuff !
everywhere you mine rare earth there will be thorium in there, to much to not enough i dont know, im sure this is about economics.
Ps usa if you are still reading this you will turn the economics upside down if you know how to use thorium !, nudge nuge, wink wink !
Maybe try using constructive critisism and don't just scream at him.
@@cuntianna hahaha
Make video about how the different charges, positive, negative, and neutral affect our planet, please make highly advanced video, like an video essay for pHd. I think it might be most important subject for humanity to study.