(03-20-2024, 07:50 PM)snarkyguy_he_him_his Wrote:

(03-20-2024, 04:46 PM)mikesez Wrote: Mineral rights have a way of evaporating when regimes change, and regimes change a lot in Africa.

With the one exception of rare earth metals, the Chinese have been eager to sell what they mine to us at fair prices, if we want it.

Cool.

The rare ones are the ones we want and need to maintain superiority.

And as far as regime changes that's funny. Because you damn sure know the Chinese have said in perpetuity in those agreements.. and do you think Mr warlord with 4000 children with barely functioning ak47s is going to reneg on China?

The hypothetical poor African warlord is known to enjoy new toys from his contacts in the CIA, when offered.

Back to the minerals, because of the Chinese playing games with rare earth prices, production started up again at the Mountain Pass mine in California.  Rare earths are found all over the world, but because the Chinese keep the price artificially low, western countries are hesitant to develop mines for theirs.

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