The Mine House That Xi Built: Underground Rare Earths

 “While we’ve been spending billions up there, they’ve been working down here.”– Battle Beneath the Earth. In the 1967 British film, we find “the Chinese dig an undersea tunnel to allow for atomic invasions of US cities.”

Yiji, liken to a Geisha doll, whispers’ “red is green and green is red,” as entranced Americans gaze up. Only this time, it’s not at their rockets.

After being served by the Red Dragon and making it its friend, U.S now appears to wish to bring down “The Mine House That Xi Built” and have it relinquish its rare earth nuggets. Liken to other ‘red houses,’ reliance on China is astronomical.

China’s Low Labor and High Environmental costs have got the US by the economic and security balls. “Today, China controls more than 71% of the world’s extraction and 87% of the world’s processing capacity of rare earths.”

Question is, did the U.S. see this coming? If so, why did it grow its reliance instead of reducing it? Answer: Yes, because like an addict, it needs a ‘green’ fix!

More mines for U.S. to dig? I imagine China saying, “Let them mine it. Like data, it will either be shared and handed to us or we’ll acquire it in time.” Tic, toc, tic, toc…

MP Materials Corp and SHENGHE RESOURCES HOLDING CO., LTD

Enter MP Materials Corp., American company headquartered in Las Vegas, Nevada. Recall when MP came between US President Trump and China? “The only operating rare earths mine in the U.S. – and once the world’s biggest — is caught up in the crossfire of the Trump administration’s trade war with China.”

Of course, tariffs on Chinese goods continue. So why not call it what it is Joe, a tax on the American people.

As to this “decoupling” nonsense, are you aware that in its list of shareholders, Shenghe Resources Holding Co., Ltd ranks third after JHL Capital Group LLC and James Litinsky, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer.

Can’t remember? Let me refresh your memory Joe. Or, do you still read the Wall Street Journal? “A buyout group led by U.S. investors and backed by China’s Shenghe Resources Holding Co. Friday won permission to buy a California mine that is the sole U.S. source of elements needed to make electronic devices.”

Now guess which mine? “MP Mine Operations LLC, a company put together by Chicago hedge fund JHL Capital Group, New York’s QVT Financial LP and Shenghe, was cleared by a bankruptcy judge to take over the Mountain Pass mine.” Seems the Las Vegas company played a ‘good hand’ and ‘struck gold’ in California. 

But we remind you MP, “what happens in Vegas” doesn’t always stay in Vegas. Greed and gamble are not only found at the casinos. Robert Kessler sums it up pretty well, “There’s no better salesforce, no better salesgroup in the world than Wall Street.”And you know how quick-lipped salespeople are – it’s in their nature.

Speaking of quick-lipped, Joe, what is this talk of U.S. mines benefiting the environment, people and shareholders? Nonsense! Let’s talk after the White House has changed the 1872 Mining Law. Forming a committee to recommend changes only buys you all time while awarding mines millions. Looks like the only benefactors are the holders of shares.

Joe, hear you’re looking to back MP Materials and Berkshire Hathaway Energy.  So you’re a betting man. Bloomberg Gabrielle Coppola reports “Biden Bets on U.S. Battery Independence.”

“There’s plenty of risk for failure. As Joe Lowry, a lithium mining consultant, pointed out to me, none of the companies working in the Salton Sea have demonstrated that their technology, known as direct lithium extraction, can work on a commercial scale. And as my colleague David Baker has reported, other firms have tried and failed in the past.”

Well Joe, seems you can’t pick them, or hold’em. I remind you of your visit to the Kingdom, “Saudi Crown Prince holds best hand, a hot oil Royal Flush.”

Speaking of “betting on a sure thing” and of all things energy, defense or space related, the usual 3-D suspects are involved: DOE, DOD and DARPA.

Consider MPs business summary “The Company is focused on producing neodymium-praseodymium (NdPr), lanthanum, and cerium oxides and carbonates…NdPr magnets are used in many technologies, including electric vehicles, drones, defense systems…”

Yet, it is the U.S. President’s words/actions that don’t mesh. Last February, Joe announced that DOD would be investing millions in MP Materials. Apparently in an attempt to lessen dependence of rare earth minerals from abroad. We think he really means China.

See, if economic security = national security, why are Chinese companies like SHENGHE RESOURCES HOLDING CO., LTD listed as a shareholder to U.S. companies like MP? Nothing like “adding fuel to the fire” of a red dragon.

Some may find Battle Beneath the Earth fantastic. I find its rudimentary idea can be modernized with advanced technologies. Will U.S. “Green Knights” slay China’s “Red Dragons” or will knights be engulfed in flames?

Dynamic and creative thinkers and tinkers have come up with clever inventions. More importantly, where, how, and when to use them. See, it’s how you think.

Or, as the character Gen. Chan Lu says, “Americans logical, surprise with illogical.”

In the film, General takes over plutonium plants. He understands subconscious desires. Americans can’t help but love the Yiji long time.

Will the art of film come to life? Or, will it be as Oscar Wilde found more than a century ago that “Life imitates Art far more than Art imitates Life.”

Underground or Space, ‘Beam me up, Mr. Scott.’ 😉