Quote:
Originally Posted by oil pan 4
Also about china's solar panels, they make pretty much all the rare earth metals. So if the US wanted to produce solar panels we would still have to buy the rare earths from them.
|
Not true. The Chinese mine most of the rare earth metals for the same reason they make most of the solar panels: they can do it cheaply, and supply the existing demand. If the demand increases, or China decides to artificially raise the price or limit exports, there are other deposits (including some in the US) that could be mined:
https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mineral-resources/ree.html