China has near global monopolies on these exports, accounting for 98% of global gallium production, 93% of germanium production, and 49% of antimony production.

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  • BodyBySisyphus [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    23 days ago

    If the tariffs on solar panels are any indication, this is just going to be an economic stimulus for China’s neighbors, who will be able to sell Chinese minerals to the US at what I at least hope will be a generous markup.

    • CoolerOpposide [none/use name]@hexbear.netOP
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      23 days ago

      That’s exactly what is going to happen lmao the U.S. acts like it can do to China what it does to Cuba. Too late for that no buddy, you sent all of your production there!

            • ThermonuclearEgg [she/her, they/them]@hexbear.net
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              21 days ago

              I actually prefer it not be destroyed .

              I disagree. The US can no longer exist in its current form for the world to ever recover.

              If that means that, by some miracle, a successful and peaceful communist revolution happens (by some minority-led resistance), the FBI/CIA/etc. are toppled, and the new government actually starts the long healing process, great. I would be incredibly suspicious of this outcome, but still, unnecessary bloodshed would of course be preferable. This would still not be the US as we know it.

              If that means that the US must be overthrown in a world war, then as much as I’d rather not have a world war, it has to happen. Allowing the US (or any of its other allies) to continue genociding millions, and harming and exploiting the lives of billions more, for the gain of a few is unacceptable by any legitimate moral standard.

            • PropagandaIsUseless [he/him]@hexbear.net
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              20 days ago

              I’m happy to go down with this Ship of Nighmares. Like Stink here, I am disgusted at the unavoidable blood sacrifices that make my way of life tick. I refuse to help an evil rose bloom, even if I live on the very same vine.

              I will be singing praises and comforting my loved ones as this rampaging monster is brought down.

              If Viktor Frankl can find solace and happiness in a Nazi concentration camp, I can manage to live what’s left of my life happily celebrating the end of this Evil Empire.

    • MoonMelon@lemmy.ml
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      22 days ago

      Same thing happened with honey. Suddenly Vietnam’s honey exports magically increased to more than their domestic production. Of course nobody cared because it’s all theater.

  • DragonBallZinn [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    23 days ago

    Really cool and good how we as a country have imperial boomerang’ed so hard that this country is choosing to selectively cherry-pick to have all the bad of the free-market with none of the good.

  • 2Password2Remember [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    23 days ago

    gallium

    germanium

    it would be really funny if china just started referring to e*ropean countries as if they were provinces of the roman empire again

    Death to America

  • Utter_Karate [he/him, comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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    22 days ago

    If I gather anything from the more knowledgable people in the comments it is that the US needn’t worry, because these resources aren’t just exported by China, but also by Russia and no one else in the world. So they just need to cash in those years of Russian goodwill they’ve built up and this shouldn’t be a problem.

    • Zuzak [fae/faer, she/her]@hexbear.net
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      22 days ago

      Are you telling me that being blindly antagonistic in every corner of the globe simultaneously actually has consequences? Because that sounds like Russian disinformation.

    • BynarsAreOk [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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      22 days ago

      Well 2/3 of the comments here a jokes barely talking about the issue so idk.

      Imo is if American tariffs and sanctions didn’t work back in 2022 why should it work for anyone else? China isn’t about to police world trade flows in order to make sure these exports wont end up in the US. In practical terms this is just incentivizing the black market supply for it. You should rather temper your expectations that this will actualy have a meaningful long term effect at all.

      Yes NATO artillery stocks are low but clearly the US doesn’t give a fuck about it given the Ukrainian missile escalation this recently so its one of those things that technicaly ought to matter but in reality doesn’t at all. Yeah Ukraine is even more assured to not get more supplies and that changes nothing given they lost this war years ago already.

      • Jabril [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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        22 days ago

        I think this is an apples and oranges situation. China is not sanctioning or tariffing, they are banning exports of specific items for industries that their government is entirely in control of. The US can say tarrifs this and sanctions that but the private companies can do whatever they want, the US has no real power over them. China has unilateral control over these minerals and nearly every nation that trades with them has a strong incentive to not only follow whatever boundaries China sets for the minerals, but many of these nations are probably also happy to to comply because they don’t have good relationships with the US either. If any one is middle manning them to the US, China is approving it, and I’d bet that if they say not to, it won’t happen.

        If anything I’d be worried about nations like Bolivia who also have some of these metals because the US could be more incentivized to destabilize them for mineral access.

    • Lemister [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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      22 days ago

      They dont export these resources. Anitmony can be found in primarily in Russia, but also Myanmar & Bolivia (and Australia), Gallium in Ukraine/Russia, Slovakia as well as the UK lol, and Germanium in Russia and Northumberland

      • LaughingLion [any, any]@hexbear.net
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        22 days ago

        I just posted this. Antimony is not extracted in any real significant numbers outside of Russia, South Africa, Bolvia, and China. China alone produces over 90% of it. Hunan province is the jackpot on the stuff. Bolivia is the second biggest producer at just under 5%. Russia and South Africa produce about 1-2%. That’s it. Some countries have strategic stores of it and some have a small mine here or there that is used purely for themselves because it is all they have. The US has 0 antimony mines currently. The US could waive environmental concerns and heavily subsidize a mine or two but it won’t meet the needs of the military to produce the munitions which require it, like artillery shells.

  • LaughingLion [any, any]@hexbear.net
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    22 days ago

    Antimony is a rare earth mineral needed for the production of all modern artillery shells. The US has no antimony mines. China controls its extraction and owns like 90% of the mines in Hunan province. Other mines are located in Russia and South Africa. Bolivia is the second highest producer behind China. Pretty much no other nation produces it. That’s it. Four countries.

    • AnneVolin@lemmy.ml
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      22 days ago

      The US national stock pile is set to be depleted in 2025.

      It’s fucking crazy such a simple weapon hasn’t been simplified in its supply chain demand for over 100 years. Antimony is literally used to harden the metal casings of the shells. That’s fucking it. Seriously. That’s fucking it. For 100 years the greatest most capitalisticalist empire on earth couldn’t figure out how to more sustainably harden artillery shells without using a rare earth metal.

        • AnneVolin@lemmy.ml
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          22 days ago

          Ironically this isn’t the first time it’s had this problem. Japan stopped giving it to them around WW2.

      • LaughingLion [any, any]@hexbear.net
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        21 days ago

        It’s also a component for stable and reliable fuses.

        But yeah, I agree. You’d think there would be other options. There probably are. But in America’s hubris they most likely presumed they could just bully anyone into being suppliers for these materials.

    • Wizzard@lemm.ee
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      22 days ago

      While Antimony is certainly rare (contextually) and an earth mineral, using those terms are incorrect in the greater sense - One shouldn’t confuse it (as another reply did) for a ‘rare-earth metal’ or rare-earth element (REE) which is a wholly different group of elements with geo-political contexts.

      Antimony is a metalloid (not quite a metal) and is about as scarce as silver, tin and iodine in the Earth’s crust.

      • LaughingLion [any, any]@hexbear.net
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        21 days ago

        Thanks for the context. Additionally, whether or not a metal is rare is a lot less important as to whether or not it can be found in concentrations good enough for extraction on an industrial scale. That’s where Hunan province comes in. They got the mines with the concentrations to make it worthwhile and they’ve got the economic and political willpower to get those mines running because it’s what they need. For that to happen in America we’d literally need to fully fund these publicly but of course we’d keep any profits private. Think of all the corruption and inefficiency you can imagine and there you’d have it.

    • miz [any, any]@hexbear.net
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      22 days ago

      Antimony is a rare earth mineral needed for the production of all modern artillery shells.

      looked this up to find out what it goes into and apparently it is the best hardener for alloying lead

  • Barx [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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    22 days ago

    I don’t know if it’s obvious to folks here or not but these are common for doping silicon chips so they can work as computers. Similarly useful for solar panels.

    If US chip companies don’t have substantial backup stocks they’re screwed.

  • 🏴 hamid abbasi [he/him] 🏴@vegantheoryclub.org
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    22 days ago

    I honestly believe it is the intent of the US to go nuclear and destroy the advanced economies of the world to recreate the post world war 2 order where the rest of the world is in ruins except their shining city on a hill