Chinese Bread And Butter

China's monopoly over rare-earth metals could be challenged by the discovery of massive deposits of these hi-tech minerals in mud on the Pacific floor, a study on Sunday suggests.

China accounts for 97 percent of the world's production of 17 rare-earth elements, which are essential for electric cars, flat-screen TVs, iPods, superconducting magnets, lasers, missiles, night-vision goggles, wind turbines and many other advanced products.

As a result, the 17 elements have sometimes been dubbed "21st-century gold" for their rarity and value.

Production of them is almost entirely centred on China, which also has a third of the world's reserves. Another third is held together by former Soviet republics, the United States and Australia. 

That's a pretty sizeable margin, but the new discovery has put a major dent in China's market domination.  However, it has led to a whole new scramble while scientists and businesses align to determine the best way to mine these products.  The good news is, there is little to no environmental impact from the filtering process (the mining may be a different story) but the bad news is this accumulates so slowly that when we're out, we're out.  Dependence on a limited resource is only a temporary choice.

The material had taken hundreds of millions of years to accumulate, depositing at the rate of less than half a centimetre (0.2 of an inch) per thousand years. They were probably snared by action with a hydrothermal mineral called phillipsite.

At one site in the central North Pacific, an area of just one square kilometre (0.4 of a square mile) could meet a fifth of the world's annual consumption of rare metals and yttrium, says the paper. 

A secondary perk may be that this could lead to a better exploration of the ocean, and the treasures it may contain.  In the meantime, this could also drop prices on gadgets and tech products, which makes a geek like me smile.