China Dominates Production of Green Essential Minerals

Two US public broadcasting news programs, The NewsHour and WorldFocus, have recently aired a report from British ITN television about recent action by China to restrict its export of rare earth minerals essential for the manufacture of green technologies including wind turbines and hybrid automobile engines. Some of these minerals are also essential in the manufacture of mobile digital technology such as cellular telephones. This development turns out not to be so new, however. Reports were published by The Age and The New York Times at the beginning of September on China’s new policy on rare earths. Click the newspaper titles for the respective stories.

For the ITN report as broadcast on The Newshour…