Under Headlines: China Ends Rare-Earth Minerals Export Quotas, the article discusses the elimination of Chinese export quotas on strategically important rare-earth minerals following a Word Trade Organization ruling against China in 2013. The export quotas, which were reduced by 40% in 2010, sharply increased prices on rare-earth minerals and led other countries to look for alternate suppliers. In this question, you will be asked to look at China’s export quotas for rare-earth minerals and world prices for rare-earth minerals.
The source of the data is Statista ( available The Statistics Portal ) and the Institute of Rare Earth Metals (ISE) ( available The Institute of Rare Earth Metals ). To access Statista site data for quotas:
1. Scroll down to the China section and select “China's rare earth element export quotas.” This will open a bar graph depicting China’s export quota for rare-earth minerals from 2005 to 2015.
2. To access the price data on the ISE site, scroll down to the “Rare earth oxides of prices for 2004 to 2010” price data.
Now you will utilize U.S. Geological Survey data to determine rare-earth mineral production in the United States. The data are available UCGS Minerals Information. To access the data:
1. Under “Mineral commodity summaries,” choose “Rare earths, pdf format” and select the year 2015.
2. This will open a pdf document with rare-earth data for the years 2010–2014.
Comparing the data from the first question and the second question, choose whether the following statements are correct or incorrect: