"China is rich in natural resources, among which mineral resources play a key role in the industrial and technological development of modern society. ”
Countries with abundant mineral resources have a clear advantage, they can not only use their own mineral resources for development, but also export a part of their resources to other countries for profit.
China is one of the largest exporters of such resources, with partners all over the world, including Japan, which is also located in Asia. As an island country, Japan's own resources are relatively scarce, and it is reasonable to purchase mineral resources from China.
In 2010, Japan suddenly became interested in China's waste glass and began to buy a large number of them. However, waste glass is not worth much, which makes people wonder.
What is the reason for such a sudden demand for waste glass in Japan? At this time, a rare earth company in Sichuan called the relevant departments of my country to report**.
The company's staff explained that the waste glass from their factory had suddenly become the object of Japanese purchase. This news has attracted a lot of attention and has also made people think about the reasons behind Japan's acquisition of waste glass.
The staff wondered, why did Japan suddenly buy a large amount of waste glass? But when it comes to Japan, they think that they can't ignore it, so they ask the relevant departments of our country for help. Experienced operators understand the importance of this and immediately report to the leadership of the Ministry of Commerce.
After listening to the operator's account, the leaders of the Ministry of Commerce quickly grasped several key points.
The sudden large-scale acquisition attracted the attention of the leadership of the Ministry of Commerce, who immediately sent professionals to conduct an in-depth investigation. After careful investigation by the commissioner, we found that Japan had ulterior motives in this regard. "
Japan does not want to buy ordinary waste glass, if you need waste glass, it is more convenient to go directly to the glass factory, but they chose a rare earth company in Sichuan, China, which means that what they really want is not glass, but the rare earth elements contained in waste glass.
Some people wonder why Japan wants to steal waste glass to obtain rare earth elements, instead of importing them directly. This is because the importance of rare earth elements is self-evident. Japan ships waste glass back to China to extract rare earth elements for use in the country's industrial development.
Moreover, there is a small part of waste glass containing rare earth elements, which can be directly used as lenses for some precision instruments after processing. The utilization of rare earth elements has greatly improved their work efficiency.
So, what are rare earth elements?
Rare earth minerals are not named because they are scarce, but because they contain a variety of elements that can be used in high-tech applications, such as aerospace and chemicals.
Extracting high-purity rare earth elements requires a series of complex procedures, which makes it difficult for a few countries to master the process of refining rare earth deposits. Therefore, this mineral resource is revered as "rare earth".
For Japan, the challenge is not only the problem of purification technology, but also the fact that they also have a certain amount of rare earth deposits.
The Ogasawara Islands are home to Japan's rare earth deposits, but their location makes it difficult to exploit Japan's resources. It is reported that most of the rare earth deposits are buried about 8 kilometers deep under the sea, and it is quite difficult to drill 8 kilometers even for onshore operations.
If you want to mine deposits on the seabed, you have to take into account many factors, including pressure, the corrosive nature of the seawater, and the ecology of the seabed. For Japan at that time, they did not have the mature technology to be able to mine rare earth resources in the Ogasawara Islands.
Therefore, their initial option was to import rare earths from abroad.
China used to be the main supplier of rare earths in Japan, but why does Japan no longer import rare earths and buy waste glass instead? This may be due to resource utilization and environmental considerations.
There is only one reason, and that is money. In recent years, China has significantly increased tariffs on rare earth exports, which has put pressure on Japan.
When the People's Republic of China was first founded, due to the lack of ability to purify rare earth elements and the lack of understanding of the importance of rare earth elements for the development of high-tech technology, a large number of rare earth resources in China were coveted by many countries.
Despite this, China is still able to solve the urgent economic needs through these rare earth minerals. With the passage of time, China's comprehensive national strength has gradually increased, and now we have our own purification technology, and we are also aware of the importance of rare earth elements for the development of national science and technology.
Raw rare earth ore is not processed, and mining in large quantities will damage the country's energy structure and ecological environment, and at the same time, other countries will take advantage of it. Because raw materials are cheaper than processed products, processing increases the length of the industrial chain and the added value of goods.
Raw ore deposits** are much lower than purified elements, and rare earths are no exception.
China has chosen a strategy of giving priority to quantity in the export of rare earths, but the returns are low, which may cause huge economic losses to China. Fortunately, China woke up in time and began to raise rare earth export tariffs and strengthen export supervision in the 90s of the 20th century to protect China's interests.
China's rare earth export tariffs have been raised to protect the security of domestic resources. However, for Japan, which is completely dependent on imported rare earths, this adjustment could put pressure.
This may also be one of the reasons why they seek to buy China's waste glass at a low price to obtain rare earth elements.