Investment deal sends stockpiled minerals from NWT rare earths mine to China - National | Globalnews.ca
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Rare earth elements (REEs) are essential to the so-called green economy, used for everything from smartphones and tablets to electric vehicles and wind turbines.

Rare earth elements (REEs) are essential to the so-called green economy, used for everything from smartphones and tablets to electric vehicles and wind turbines.

  • Pyr_Pressure
    4·
    6 months ago

    “Once a product leaves North America and is destined for China, you no longer see that product coming back, you only see the final product, a phone, a car, a wind turbine — you would never see the actual material come back,” Hussein adds.

    But that’s… That’s how it works. Raw materials aren’t shipped around the world for fun. Why would anyone ship a ton of iron or wood to China and then have China ship it back unchanged?

    We don’t need the material back. If we needed the material we wouldn’t have sold it in the first place?

    • sik0fewl@kbin.socialOP
      2·
      6 months ago

      Ya, I agree OC’s comment didn’t make much sense in that regard. Maybe what they were meaning to say (and I’d agree with) is that we need more value-add economy instead of just being a resource exporter.

    • ttmrichter@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      6 months ago

      And yet … here we are with Global News talking as if it’s unusual for countries to buy raw materials to build products…

      (Protip: They’re not concerned about that at all. This is just the anti-China narrative at work again.)