Welcome to c/news! Please read the Hexbear Code of Conduct and remember... we're all comrades here.
Rules:
-- PLEASE KEEP POST TITLES INFORMATIVE --
-- Overly editorialized titles, particularly if they link to opinion pieces, may get your post removed. --
-- All posts must include a link to their source. Screenshots are fine IF you include the link in the post body. --
-- If you are citing a twitter post as news please include not just the twitter.com in your links but also nitter.net (or another Nitter instance). There is also a Firefox extension that can redirect Twitter links to a Nitter instance: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/libredirect/ or archive them as you would any other reactionary source using e.g. https://archive.today/ . Twitter screenshots still need to be sourced or they will be removed --
-- Mass tagging comm moderators across multiple posts like a broken markov chain bot will result in a comm ban--
-- Repeated consecutive posting of reactionary sources, fake news, misleading / outdated news, false alarms over ghoul deaths, and/or shitposts will result in a comm ban.--
-- Neglecting to use content warnings or NSFW when dealing with disturbing content will be removed until in compliance. Users who are consecutively reported due to failing to use content warnings or NSFW tags when commenting on or posting disturbing content will result in the user being banned. --
-- Using April 1st as an excuse to post fake headlines, like the resurrection of Kissinger while he is still fortunately dead, will result in the poster being thrown in the gamer gulag and be sentenced to play and beat trashy mobile games like 'Raid: Shadow Legends' in order to be rehabilitated back into general society. --
China has near global monopolies on these exports, accounting for 98% of global gallium production, 93% of germanium production, and 49% of antimony production.
Antimony is a rare earth mineral needed for the production of all modern artillery shells. The US has no antimony mines. China controls its extraction and owns like 90% of the mines in Hunan province. Other mines are located in Russia and South Africa. Bolivia is the second highest producer behind China. Pretty much no other nation produces it. That's it. Four countries.
Aw fuck. Looks like we'll start seeing mass protests in Santa Cruz
Yeah they surely will try again something.
the feds literally tried to kill Evo Morales like a few weeks ago! he said it himself. the people who tried to kill him were not locals https://youtu.be/YfrNXlYbwlY
Oh wow. I knew about the falling out he had with Arce, but didn't know Arce went that far right. I guess the US already got their guy in charge.
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
The US national stock pile is set to be depleted in 2025.
It's fucking crazy such a simple weapon hasn't been simplified in its supply chain demand for over 100 years. Antimony is literally used to harden the metal casings of the shells. That's fucking it. Seriously. That's fucking it. For 100 years the greatest most capitalisticalist empire on earth couldn't figure out how to more sustainably harden artillery shells without using a rare earth metal.
I think that answers the question. The US has been perfectly fine exploiting other countries to get it for that amount of time and thus has no reason to do anything else
Ironically this isn't the first time it's had this problem. Japan stopped giving it to them around WW2.
It's also a component for stable and reliable fuses.
But yeah, I agree. You'd think there would be other options. There probably are. But in America's hubris they most likely presumed they could just bully anyone into being suppliers for these materials.
While Antimony is certainly rare (contextually) and an earth mineral, using those terms are incorrect in the greater sense - One shouldn't confuse it (as another reply did) for a 'rare-earth metal' or rare-earth element (REE) which is a wholly different group of elements with geo-political contexts.
Antimony is a metalloid (not quite a metal) and is about as scarce as silver, tin and iodine in the Earth's crust.
Thanks for the context. Additionally, whether or not a metal is rare is a lot less important as to whether or not it can be found in concentrations good enough for extraction on an industrial scale. That's where Hunan province comes in. They got the mines with the concentrations to make it worthwhile and they've got the economic and political willpower to get those mines running because it's what they need. For that to happen in America we'd literally need to fully fund these publicly but of course we'd keep any profits private. Think of all the corruption and inefficiency you can imagine and there you'd have it.
Corruption? In America? I've got a map that says otherwise
looked this up to find out what it goes into and apparently it is the best hardener for alloying lead
Also is a component for stable and reliable fuses.