Comments by "richie" (@richiesd1) on "When the chips are down: China threatens to cut supply on rare minerals • FRANCE 24 English" video.

@seanlander9321 , whatever you say. If the Chinese are incompetent, then you don’t have to worry about them. Consider that gallium is a byproduct of aluminum processing. If the Chinese produce aluminum, but don’t sell the gallium; then, if you want gallium, you must produce your own aluminum at a very high cost. But Chinese aluminum is cheaper, so who’s gonna buy your aluminum? Sure, the Chinese may end up with a glut of gallium in their own market, but they can use the cheap gallium to produce more semiconductors at a lower price. They can sell the semiconductors around the world, and especially in developing nations, and use the money for more research to improve their own semiconductor industry. I spend a lot of time in Las Vegas and I own properties that are often rented to workers at the mountain pass rare earth mine. That mine is subsidized by the government at the tune of billions of dollars. And the rare earth is exported to China for processing. Even rare earth that can be mined cannot be processed in the West. All the back-and-forth sanctions do is cause inflation and more government spending.
17
@seanlander9321 , those metals are bi products of other processing. They are not mined.
12
@seanlander9321 , the point is that you have to big time ramp up processing of other metals in order to get little gallium and germanium. At what cost? And what will you do with the other metals?
2
@andrewlim7751 , that's exactly right. The goal of the United States is to retard Chinese chip development.... The Chinese have the knowledge but they don't yet make the sanctioned equipment. By sanctioning the minerals, the Chinese can likewise retard Western chip production, cause inflation so companies find it hard to operate. The West will have to invest in costly mining and processing. They will have to sell aluminum at a loss so private enterprises will not invest. Huge government subsidies will be needed. After the Chinese make their own equipment and catch up, they can flood world markets with high performance chips. I don't know what side will win, but that's the trade war that was launched by USA. We will find out in 10 years. Remember Solyndra? Obama subsidized the company to try to build a solar panel industry.... That industry is now in China
2