(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . China Bans Metalloids and other elements to U.S. in War of the Chips [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2024-12-06 I was wondering if this would happen some day. China controls 95% of the world's metalloids and rare earth minerals. What they don't mine themselves, they refine from ores of other countries. These metalloids are crucial to the production of electronics, especially microprocessor and memory chips, and every advanced integrated circuit chip. The conflict started in earnest last week when U.S. Department of Commerce expanded the list of Chinese companies subject to export controls to include many that make equipment used to create computer chips, chip making tools, and software. Almost all of the companies are Chinese, but there are some from South Korea, Japan, and Singapore. The new rules also limit the export to China of high bandwidth memory chips needed for applications such as artificial intelligence. On Tuesday, China banned exports of germanium, gallium, antimony, and rare earth minerals to the United States. Both countries are fighting over computer chips and the means to make them. When news of the Chinese ban was announced, the price of antimony jumped up 40% in one day. China mines 48% of the world's supply of antimony. Other countries ship theirs to China for refining. Military uses include ammunition, infrared missiles, and nuclear weapons. It's also used in lead-acid batteries in cars, and brake pads. Finally, it's used in the glass covers for solar panels to improve transparency as well as in the screens of smartphones. Germanium is used in solar cell wafers, integrated circuits, and fiber optic cables among the dozen other electronics uses for it. Gallium also has many uses in electronics. Gallium arsenide can be the underlayer of electronic circuits instead of silicon. Gallium arsenide has better properties for this purpose. Also, on Tuesday, China told Chinese companies that chips made in the United States were no longer safe and that they should buy them locally. The start of this electronics war was back in 2022, when the US banned the use of Huawei electronics. The fear was that their network communications equipment that they would supply, especially for 5G, would have back doors to the Chinese government. Now the Chinese are expressing the same fear, justified or not. The US imports 63% of its supply of antimony from China. Another critical important is graphite. China accounts for 77% of the natural graphite production worldwide, and 95% of the synthetic graphite. The US Imports 99% of its graphite from China. A typical electric vehicle uses an average of 136 lbs of graphite. Graphite isn't banned entirely but China is tightening its restrictions on export. Tungsten is believed to be the next material on the list that we get from China. Currently the United States doesn't produce any. It's vital for defense technologies. Keeping China from using advanced AI chips and manufacturing equipment is designed to slow their development of AI systems and advanced weaponry. Now, the Chinese have returned the favor and are cutting our supplies of necessary materials to make our advanced chips. Estimates of the costs to U.S. manufacturers is in the billions, and the effect on military defense is also problematic. Nobody knows for sure about the result of both country's actions. The effects of the export ban on Taiwan is expected to be minimal. Taiwan has been sourcing the materials from other countries for some time. The only effect it would have on them is the fluctuating price. So this should not affect TSMC, which is the foundry for many chip manufacturers, including Nvidia, AMD, Apple and Qualcomm, to name a few. The planned Trump tariffs on imports from China is not going to help the matter any. ________________________________ A small update of hope. They found rare earth metals in coal ash. It's not the big 3 in my article. They have names like scandium, neodymium, yttrium. Despite the name, these metals are not really rare, but they're very hard to extract. Finding them in coal ash that needs to be disposed of from coal fired power plants is a good form of recycling. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/12/6/2290510/-China-Bans-Rare-Earth-Minerals-to-U-S-in-War-of-the-Chips?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=community_spotlight&pm_medium=web Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/