"The first shot, it is forbidden to carry, and violators will be investigated. Before reading this article, please click "Follow" in the upper right corner, which is not only convenient for you to discuss and share, but also can bring you a different sense of participation, thank you for your support!
** Financial gossip
Author of Financial Gossip
Recently, the German "Manager Magazine" saidThe Swedish company Northvolt has made a breakthrough in the technology of sodium-ion batteries
This is the raw material in the batteryExcludes lithium, nickel, cobaltetc., canSignificantly reduce dependence on rare earths in China.
However, this technology is still being studied, and it is still before mass production can be achievedWait 7 years
As early as 2 years ago, our enterprisesCATL has already released the first generation of sodium-ion batteries with the same technical level as Northvolt.
In April this year, CATL announced that sodium-ion batteries would be launched on Chery models.
At the moment, it seemsChina is still far ahead in sodium-ion batteries.
So, why are European car companies so eager to try to "de-Chinaize" in the process of developing new energy vehicles?
As early as 2022, the European Union had customized an emission reduction agreementIt is required to achieve zero carbon emissions from new vehicles by 2035.
However, the reality is that the research and development of electric vehicles in Europe is still in its infancy compared to China.
After allOn December 29, 2021, European car companies also developed their own first lithium-ion battery.
If the new energy vehicles of European car companies do not develop, they may really become a piece of fish on Chinese chopsticks like the cover of the German media "Focus".
WhileEven the development of electric vehicles, as well as patents and raw materials, has to rely on China's industry.
Under such a premise, some car companies choose to find another way to develop sodium battery technology.
However, if it is only sodium battery technology, it obviously cannot reduce the dependence on rare earths, after all, the raw materials such as lithium, nickel, and cobalt that are reduced in the sodium battery mentioned in the report are not rare earths.
In new energy vehicles, rare earth is really in a dominant position, and it is the upstream material of the electric vehicle, the core component of the electric vehicle, the rare earth permanent magnet.
The permanent magnet synchronous motor with NdFeB as the core of the rare earth permanent magnet material is still the mainstream motor in the electric vehicle industry.
Once, the relevant patents of Ru iron boron materials,More than half of it is monopolized by Japanese companiesButLooking at the comparison of the current technical parameters, China has achieved transcendence.
In the field of rare earths, China does not dare to say that it dominates the world, and it is also far ahead.
EU President Ursula von der Leyen has said very strongly: YesChina must be deprived of the right to operate rare earths freely.
It's a pity that such "ambitions" are doomed to fail.
In the past, China did not have the right to operate rare earths freely.
Back at the beginning of the 20th century,Some scientists have discovered the rare earth ore in the territory - Baiyun Obo main peak iron ore.
It isThe largest in the worldThe rare earth ore has been buried for decades because of the war.
In times of peace, we finally have the opportunity to mine minerals.
But at that time China,Not even a single car or plane could be built, and mining relied on manpower and shovels.
In this case, the plan we have set is:Protection is the mainstay, supplemented by mining.
A small number of mined rare earths, also due toThere is a lack of smelting technology for rare earths, and it has to be lowered by other countries to buy back the smelted finished product.
This situation lasted until 1972, when the rare earth world descended on Xu Guangxian.
This fierce man not only relied on the extraction method to rub the plutonium raw material of the atomic bomb by hand, but also developed the rare earth cascade extraction theory that was far ahead of his peers in just three years.
The contribution of this theory is to separate the twins in rare earthsPraseodymium and neodymium
The permanent magnet material Ru iron boron mentioned above, you can know by looking at the name, and neodymium is the key element in it.
Xu Guangxian's research results have also laid the foundation for today's new energy industry.
In more information, the follow-up is considerableTo put it mildly
As a result, China's rare earth production has increased significantly, which has laid the international lead for rare earths, and some foreign rare earth giants have collapsedAs a result, China's rare earth industry has become the world's first.
But the reality is far more tragic than imagined.
This is the result at the moment, but too many processes are omitted in this short sentence.
Originally,Even if China has the most advanced rare earth separation technology, the international ** of rare earth is quite stable.
However, after the reopening, the rare earth industry alsoMarketizationThere are many small bosses of private enterprises who have taken a fancy to the huge profits of rare earth mining and smelting, and have begun to invest in rare earthsDisorderly mining.
The huge supply flowed into the market, and as a result, in the international market, the rare earth fell again and again.
These businessmen who are greedy for profit, only have money in their eyes and do not see any righteousness of their family and countryI can't squeeze the last bit of value out of my country's rare earth industry.
They evenXu Guangxian's extraction technology was spread abroad, in the face of huge interests, even if there are many denunciations by the relevant institutions, it will not help.
Of course, there are foreign companies behind this.
Not only did they steal our technology, but they collectively stopped buying rare earths whenever they had them, so that our country's illegal businessmen had to continue to sell them at low prices.
According to the official survey report in 2012, China's rare earth reserves fell from 90% of the world's reserves to 23% in 2012.
The rare earth ore in the Baiyun Obo mining area, which was once the world's largest rare earth mine, was dug as iron ore, and nowOnly 1 3 of the rare earth reserves remaining in this mining area remain.
It's perfectly fair to say itThe outbreak of semiconductor technology in the 90s of the last century, China's rare earth minerals, which were lost to the world, definitely contributed a lot of credit.
Xu Guangxian was very saddened by this situation and repeatedly called for the protection of China's rare earth industry.
Since 2006, China has strengthened the supervision and management of the rare earth industry, prohibiting the illegal mining, export and processing of rare earths, and the management has become stricter year by year.
At the same time, the company has also increased the protection of rare earth resources and improved the efficiency of mining and utilization.
At present, China's rare earth industry has been formed byNorth Rare Earth, China Minmetals, Aluminum Corporation of China, Xiamen Tungsten, Southern Rare Earth and Guangdong Rare Earth are the six major groupsThe pattern of integration.
The illegal mining and dumping of rare earths have gradually disappeared, but they still leave a huge wound on China's rare earth industry.
It isA disgrace to our iron ore industry, but some new turnarounds have begun to emerge.
China's rare earth export quota policy is becoming tighter year by year.
So what if you still need rare earths? These "big smart" foreign countries are simply thereThe rare earths are processed in China and then shipped out.
By 2010, China already had most of the rare earth industry chain in the world95% rare earth raw materials, 75% NdFeB magnets……It's all produced in our country.
China has a complete link in the rare earth industry chain, including:Mining, separation, refining, alloy smelting to some downstream products.
In this context, China's rare earth field is also full of talents.
In 2019, the CEO of Lynas, Australia's largest rare earth company, publicly statedThere are about 100 PhDs in the rare earth industry, all of whom work in our country.
And most of these doctors studied under the "father of rare earths" - Xu Guangxian.
And thoseRare earth giants, such as the United States rare earth hydrogen storage alloy production plant, Australian mining company, Aofan company and other foreign-funded enterprises, have set up factories in China.
Some bold companies have even chosen to close their local factories and build new ones in China.
After the bankruptcy of these factories, most of them were also "recruited".
This leads to even ifRare earth minerals mined from other countries must also be transported to China for processing.
Once our country tightens its controls a little, the whole world will be shaken.
In 2012, when Sino-Japanese relations deteriorated, China relied on the "rare earth export control" in exchange for Japan's softness to us.
"Sino-Japanese relations, especially economic exchanges, need to be restored as soon as possible. ”
After all, Japan's pillar industries, the semiconductor industry and the automobile industry, are highly dependent on rare earth resources, but there are no rare earth mines that can be mined in Japan, and if you want to buy rare earths, you can only look to China.
This "big killer" is really critical, the history of China's rare earth export quotasIt had to be terminated in 2014.
In 2012, a number of countries, led by the United States,A complaint was filed with the WTO, demanding that China cancel the control measures on rare earth exports.
In this rare earth case, China lost the lawsuit, and the WTO ruled that China should stop controlling rare earths before 2014.
YesThere are policies and countermeasures, and the "Rare Earth Management Regulations" came into beingAnd born.
Although the quota system is no longer in place, the export tariff on rare earths has also been increased by a factor of 10, and other countries can no longer manipulate rare earths at will**.
Once those rare earth merchantsThe desire for profit is consumed, but he has no intention of doing some good things in the willows.
For example, under the fierce war, except for China, almost all rare earth companies in the world are on the verge of bankruptcy.
Just like in 2015, it wasAmerican rare earth giant Morley MiningBankrupt, after rectification, it was quietly renamedNEO New Material Technology (Beijing)**
And the largest rare earth mine in the United States-Mountain Pass Rare Earth MineIt was also auctioned separately to a company called MPMO.
This company is made up of:Singapore Shenghe International Trade holds 10% of the shares, stillPreferred sharesIt has the right to mine, smelt and operate the Montingpass mine.
Originally, the Americans did not want the Chinese to participate, but after some investigation, they found outThe behind-the-scenes boss of Shenghe International Trade is still Chinese, and even not small.
Pulling out the radish and bringing out the mud, the Americans were even more horrified to find out, forThe United States produces missile partsThe person in charge behind the company TDA Magnetics is suspected of becomingZhongke Sanhuan Company, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences Sanhuan Company is a subsidiary of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Who would have thought,The "neck" of the "stuck" person has been "stuck" for 56 years, and once he was "stuck" by someone.
In order to rebuild the rare earth industry in the United States, the AmericansThe responsibility was handed over to MPMO, that is, the company in which Shenghe Singapore ITC has preferred shares.
Hu Zesong, chairman of Shenghe ResourcesAfter all, there is no other company in the United States that can take over the TDA Magnetics business except MPMO.
Over the years, my country has also been working hard to ** the sequelae left by that dark history - that is"Rare earth deficiency phobia".
Although China's rare earth ore reserves no longer have the dominant position they once had, they are outside ChinaRare earth minerals that China has obtained mining rights are blooming everywhere
In addition to the American mine Montingpass, our country also took itMining rights in Greenland for the Gulf of Covane Rare Earth Mine, Isoua Iron Mine, etc.
And according to the relevant report,By 2019, the annual production capacity of rare earth mining projects being promoted outside China will be as high as 1670,000 tons.
And that year in the territory of our countryTotal exploitation control indicators, and only13.20,000 tonsNothing more.
It is no wonder that EU President von der Leyen would make such "earth-shattering" remarks.
Look ahead,China's sodium-ion batteries have been developed one step ahead of Europe and the United States.
Look back,Maybe sodium-ion batteries also need to use rare earthsAfter all, lithium batteries with rare earths and without rare earths, the effect can be described as the difference between cloud and mud.
Maybe the sodium-ion battery material doped with rare earths can also have further breakthroughs, but it still has to rely on rare earthsThis technological breakthrough in Europe may have played more of a role in boosting confidence.
What do you think of the Swedish company's announcement of the development of a sodium-ion battery that does not rely on rare earths? Feel free to leave your thoughts in the comment area.