Beyond the current 9 annual tons, I wish the Japanese the best of luck in recycling another 25,991 tons of rare metals per year.
The Japanese Dowa rare metal recycling plant processes 300 tons of materials and smelts them in a 1,400 degrees Celsius furnace to yield a paltry "150 grams of rare metals" a day per ton of material. This amounts to a total recovery of 45 Kg per day.
It requires ten days of operation to produce 450 Kg of rare metals. In one month, the Dowa recycling plant produces 1,350 Kg of rare metals. In an entire year, the Dowa plant will produce 16,200 Kg or 8 metric tons of rare metals.
The current worldwide consumption is 130,000 tons of rare metals per year. China will produce 120,000 tons of rare metals this year. China exports approximately 1/3 of its rare metals production, which is 40,000 tons. Japan consumes 65% of China's rare earth metal exports. In other words, Japan imports 26,000 tons of rare metals per year from China.
The Dowa plant produces 8 metric tons or almost 9 short tons of recycled rare metals a year. The Japanese shortfall, after recycling, is 25,991 tons of rare metals that they still need to import from China.
"Mineweb - Dorothy Kosich - 2 days ago
Japan's manufacturers account for 65% of China's rare earth exports. Metals analyst Christopher Ecclestone of Hallgarten & Company suggested the real ..."
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Technically difficult process
But this form of recycling is an expensive and technically difficult process that is still being perfected.
At Dowa's plant, computer chips and other vital parts from electronics are hacked into two-centimetre squares. This feedstock then must be smelted in a furnace that reaches 1,400°Celsius before various minerals can be extracted.
The factory processes 300 tons of materials a day, and each ton yields only about 150 grams of rare metals.
Finding enough electronics parts to recycle has also grown more difficult for Dowa, which procures used gadgets from around the world.
A growing number of countries, including the United States, are recognising the value of holding onto old electronics."
"Reason #2: Global Supply Controlled by China. Until 1948, most of the world’s rare earth metals were sourced from placer sand deposits in India and Brazil when South Africa became the largest producer. India and South African still produce rare earth metals today, but China has zoomed past everybody since the 1980′s.
This number is almost hard to believe, but it is absolutely true: China produces and controls 95% of the world’s production of rare earth minerals. Yup, 95%!
The problem is that
China currently uses about two-thirds of what it produces, but is on a consumption trajectory where it will use everything it produces in a few more years. When that happens, the U.S. and the rest of the world will be S.O.L.!
In September of last year, China announced plans to lower its export quota of rare earth metals to 35,000 tons per year in 2010-2015.
Wait, it gets worse. China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology is considering a total ban on exports of terbium, dysprosium, yttrium, thulium, and lutetium.
It’s part of a plan that Deng Xiaoping started almost two decades ago when he said that rare earth metals would 'Do for China what oil did for Saudi Arabia.'”
