【Abstract】The disputes between China and Japan surrounding rare earths have changed again in the end of 2010. A number of foreign media reported on December 30 that Japanese companies purchased the remaining broken glass from precision instruments to extract rare earths from them. According to an analysis, Japan’s trick-shooting and stalking is not the first time. The “little magic” in this kind of trade is just one step in a series of supporting rare earth practices.

Chinese rare earth expert Li Yongxiu said in an interview with the “Global Times” on the 30th that Japan’s seemingly unreasonable practice has its own considerations. It is likely that it hopes to use limited quotas to import rarer, more strategically valuable rare earths while China lowers its export quotas.

Refining rare earth with broken glass?

Agence France-Presse quoted Chinese media reports on the 30th that for China's restrictions on rare earth exports, some countries that have long-term reliance on China’s rare earth resources have expressed dissatisfaction, but they have also been found to have “little tricks”. The report said that Japan has accused China of "differentiating" rare earth exports, but is continuing to use rare methods to obtain rare earth resources from China. "Lianhe Zaobao" reported on the 30th that Japanese companies such as Mitsui & Co., Ltd. are believed to be importing rare earth elements from Chinese imports of "scraps" such as broken glass.

Professor Li Yongxiu, a rare earth science and technology expert from Nanchang University, said in an interview with the Global Times on the 30th that the content of lanthanum and cerium in the rare earth glass is relatively high. These rare earth elements are themselves abundant and abundant. Exceeding demand, logically speaking, extraction costs from broken glass are quite high. However, taking into account the reduction in China's export quota for rare earths, foreign rare earth companies have used quotas for rare earths and higher economic value when importing rare earths from China. In terms of rare earth elements that are more important in the fields of high-tech and defense technology, as for the relatively high yields of antimony and bismuth, long-term supply guarantees are obtained from glass recycling.

In an interview with the Global Times, the director of the Japan Council for the Promotion of International Trade said that the news is true and there is currently no way to confirm it. However, Japanese research institutes have begun to study technologies for replacing rare earths. Now, on the one hand, this technology is not yet fully mature. On the other hand, the cost is relatively high when it is put into the market. Japan hopes to purchase rare earths when it can purchase rare earths.

As we all know, Japan is a large economy with scarce resources. In the 30 years since the Meiji Restoration, the oil buried in China was basically used up. In the past 100 years, the reform has used up domestically-buried coal. Historical experience tells Japan that the best way to ensure resources is not science but technology. Japan began to study the use of rare earth resources from the last century 60 years. Nowadays, Japanese industry has accumulated technology of rare earth extraction and application for 50 years. A company in Japan developed the “Solvent Extractive Separation Method” and applied it to industrial production as early as 1967, and realized the industrial application of separating dozens of similar elements in rare earths.

Many ways to reduce "China risk"

Japan's current annual demand for rare earths is about 30,000 tons, almost all imported from China. Tsuyoshi Sakai said that Japan is seeking to “de-Sinicization” in the supply and demand of rare earths. At present, it has considered importing rare earths from countries such as Vietnam, Mongolia, and the United States.

Japan also fully recycles waste electrical appliances and finds rare earths through so-called "urban mining." The United States "New York Times" reported that 20 years ago, Japan's Kosaka region's mining resources were exhausted, and 20 years later, Kosaka was revived with new resources. However, the mining revitalization in the Kosaka area is not underground, but rather “urban mining”, in which valuable metals and minerals are recovered from a large number of waste electrical appliances such as mobile phones and computers. Japan’s former Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, Tetsukui Tetsei, visited a Kozai recycling plant and said: “We found gold in our cell phones.”

The Global Times reporter had previously visited a home appliance recycling factory that was operating day and night. The factory has been in operation since 2000. As of August 2010, it has collected a total of 7.06 million home appliances. The recovered iron is equivalent to more than 13 million cars. The recovered copper is equivalent to 69 Nara Buddhas and aluminum is equivalent to 85 Boeing 747s. At present, Mitsubishi, Hitachi and other companies have begun to extract rare earth from the magnets of home appliances such as refrigerators, washing machines, and air conditioners. Japan's "National Mineral Research Institute" related personnel said that Japan's waste electrical appliances contain about 300,000 tons of rare earth resources. Strengthening the recycling industry will help reduce Japan’s external demand.

Japan’s large trading companies have played an important role in this regard. Sumitomo Corporation cooperated with a uranium mining company in Kazakhstan to extract rare metals from the uranium waste. The associated minerals of uranium deposits contain a large amount of rare metals, but the extraction technology is very complicated. The content of rare metals in 150 million tons of waste ore is approximately 3%-4%, and it is estimated that it may contain about 4.5 million tons of rare metals. Enough to use in Japan for 100 years.

The Japanese government has decided to invest more than 2 billion U.S. dollars in the research and development of rare metals. At present, some universities have developed new types of magnetic materials that can improve work efficiency without using rare metals, that is, by changing the atomic arrangement of ordinary magnetic materials. The amplitude increases the magnetic properties of the material.

The "little magic" in trade has a long history

Of course, as far as water is concerned, the "China risk" cannot be immediately eliminated. Some large companies in Japan continue to import "strategic materials" containing rare earths from China using "smashing" and "stealing" methods. For example, in the past few years, a material known as tourmaline in Japan looks like coke, but it has a strong electron emission function. In Japan, it is an additive for high-energy storage materials, and it is more effective in activating microorganisms. . However, many Chinese professionals are not familiar with this term, and they cannot find much information on the Internet. Japanese companies are acquiring it from China's private sector in large numbers and importing it into Japan through ordinary trade.

In fact, it is not only the Japanese one that engages in such "little tricks." Li Yongxiu said that the use of various methods to obtain rare earths from China is not a response to Western rare earth application powers in response to China's reduction of rare earth export quotas, but has already begun. Mr. Lin Donglu, secretary general of the China Rare Earth Society, also said that Japan and France are two countries that do not have any rare earth resources but have rare earth applications that have reached the highest level in the world. The United States has rare earth resources and the application of rare earths is also one of the strongest in the world. However, the current production of rare earth is zero, and it is the consistent strategy of rare earth-related enterprises in these countries to find ways to obtain long-term and stable supply of rare earths. R&D of substitutes for rare earths and ways to reduce the addition of rare earths, including recovery from rare earth-containing products The application of rare earth, rare earth terminal enterprises to set up factories in China ... is not a new approach.

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