Have you heard of “Rare earth minerals”?

Well it has been mentioned in the press recently as China plans to reduce its current export of this rare mineral soon, like maybe March of 2011. China accounts for about 97% of the entire world’s supply of the specific minerals that are used in a number of high-tech products, such as the pricey plasma TV’s, super conductors, computers, and even magnets. Typically, a high-tech product contains a rare earth element or two, hiding inside it somewhere, and China has a monopoly on them.

These rare minerals are found inside our earth’s crust all across the globe. However, as the case may be with any rare hot commodity, the trick is finding them in concentration, and economically viable, which is much harder due to environmental concerns in other nations. China has slowly taken the world’s dominant position in the mining of these rare elements since the late 1980’s. Many other producing sites, slowly lost out to China and went out of business as they could not match on price.

China currently has a limit of 35,000 tons exported annually as they still operate under a late 2009 export restriction. However, according to a recent report from China Daily, the Ministry officials of China are considering cutting an additional 30% off their exports to help protect their supply levels.

The translation… can you say ‘price increase’?

Hence, the cost of plasma and other high-tech items will probably go up next year. For now, China has the upper hand and supply from any other nation has been slow to compete with China on price. Let’s hope the future supply of rare earth minerals soon outweighs the demand, so prices won’t get out of hand.

The United States and Japan both have said they agree that “the entire world” must start to develop new additional sources of rare earth minerals after getting this news from China. If you can find this rare earth element, it could be a huge cash cow. Maybe its time to start digging in our own backyards.

Well, the holiday season is right around the corner, so I’d suggest buying a Plasma TV before the big bang in price!

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