America shot its arsenal empty in 2 wars. Now it needs Beijing’s permission to reload (www.yahoo.com)
from tacoplease@lemmy.world to world@lemmy.world on 02 May 03:37
https://lemmy.world/post/46323194

Hubris is a hell of a drug

#world

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green_red_black@slrpnk.net on 02 May 04:08 collapse

Can anyone validate this article’s information? Not saying it’s fake news, it’s just hard to believe given the kind of effects this has on the US being able to conduct military operations

CaptDust@sh.itjust.works on 02 May 04:32 next collapse

Steve Hanke is a professor of applied economics at The Johns Hopkins University. Jeffrey Weng is the chief of staff at the Johns Hopkins Institute for Applied Economics, Global Health, and the Study of Business Enterprise.

I’m trusting the authors on this one. Samarium-cobalt is undeniably a chinese monopoly, that’s been discussed for some years. Now the combat is accelerating china’s timelines.

Warl0k3@lemmy.world on 02 May 04:36 next collapse

Yeah this article is… such an oversimplification as to be basically useless. Unfortunately this is one of the more complex topics in the whole of geopolitics, which is a shame because it is a really sexy topic to write an article about.

FiniteBanjo@feddit.online on 02 May 04:49 collapse

I’m not sure what exactly the refining of cobalt to weapons grade is, but DR Congo exported 200,800 Tons of Cobalt in 2024 which is over 100x as much as China.

EDIT: Ah, I see, the Samarium is the problem not the Cobalt lmao

Looks like Monazite is a good source for it with extensive reserves in India, Brazil, and South Carolina, and as an added bonus it can be used to harvest Thorium.

Kirp123@lemmy.world on 02 May 07:33 collapse

India and Brazil sure are countries that the US has good relations with and has not tariffed at all lately.

Having the reserves and actually using those reserves are a different thing. Even if the US starts setting up mining and processing facilities in North Carolina today it would still take a long time until those facilities become operational and produce the needed quantities.

FiniteBanjo@feddit.online on 02 May 07:38 collapse

You’re right, the USA can only import from this list of countries it has not tariffed:

  1. /sarcasm

Jokes aside, India would certainly be smart to keep their biggest adversary, China, weak both economically and militarily.

Mirshe@lemmy.world on 02 May 11:56 collapse

While this is true, you have to think on diplomatic terms too. The number of countries that will actually deal with us long-term is rapidly falling because President Sundown might wake up tomorrow and decide to tear up your trade deal or defense agreement or whatever. I can definitely see India saying “no” purely because of that.

FiniteBanjo@feddit.online on 02 May 05:02 collapse

Cobalt is easy to obtain outside of China but the issue is the Samarium. It can be obtained from Acid Cracking a mineral called Monazite which was once historically mined in South Carolina until a massive reserve was discovered in india, and it actually has a higher yield per weight than the Chinese Bastnäsite which can also be found in a couple of places in Africa.

The problem is even if the USA could source from other places than China in theory, the actual infrastructure to do so is not currently in place, and furthermore the Trump admin’s capability in securing a deal for the future is practically nonexistent.

Sometimes economists don’t/can’t factor in changes in production starting from near 0. Kind of like, any economist before the space program would have said a moon landing was 100% economically unfeasible.