60 Minutes/CBS News: Modern life's devices under China's grip?
From smartphones to cars and defense missiles, modern U.S. life depends on rare earth elements but China dominates the industry
Editor's Note: In September 2014, while we were working on this story, a Pentagon spokesman emailed us to say:
"The Department of Defense is confident in the ability of the defense industry to remain supplied with all necessary rare earths for U.S. defense acquisition programs. The Department continuously monitors and assesses its raw materials requirements, and if necessary, will again take action to ensure their availability to the defense industrial base."
That confidence is at odds with the Pentagon's Inspector General's Office, which issued a report on July 3, 2014 that concluded:
"DoD [Department of Defense] lacked a comprehensive and reliable process to assess REE supply and demand.... [and] As a result, DoD may not have identified all REEs with expected shortfalls, increasing the risk that those shortfalls will adversely affect critical weapons systems production in the DIB, and overall DoD readiness."
Update: U.S. weaponry dependent on China? -- 60 Minutes/CBS News
WNU Editor: A good summary on why rare earths are valuable and essential for modern societies and for modern militaries.
1 comment:
REE stocks are in the tank and have been for a few years after a very speculative run to the upside,so maybe it's time to start looking at a few companies,but a lot of the properties are just moose pastures..
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