Our concern isn't the Chinese and their
production capabilities, our concern is the Chinese and their
consumption capabilities. Many experts have predicted that the Chinese will be internally consuming many of those rare earths, if not all of them, by about 2014.
Vulcan: So there's not going to be anything left over for anybody else.
Smith: Exactly! They've done an excellent job of increasing production, but their use has also increased and so the exports of rare earths available to the rest of the world are becoming less and less all the time. Indeed, in the first quarter of 2009, the Chinese export quotas were 25% lower than in the first quarter of 2008.
From:
Molycorp CEO: Why Rare Earth Metals Matter