China's Rare Earth Mining And Growing Cancer Cases in Africa

An effort must be done to end China's quasi-monopoly of the Rare Earth Elements (REE) supply. There are REE reserves almost everywhere in the world and yet China managed to secure its exploration to wage a War of Economic Deception – with dire repercussions (e.g. Public Health that is a vital part of any country's National Security).

Chinese Reserves of Rare Earth Elements

In the 1980's, China was very astute in perceiving the future importance that REE would have in the technology industry; so, the Chinese started to develop rare earth mining and processing capabilities. The result is obvious: today China controls between 85% and 95% of Global supply – even though only 23% of its reserves have been proven (2012 data). The Red Dragon's REE reserves have been declining yet it has managed to maintain the quasi-monopoly of the elements supplies – how?

Rumour has it that China has banned exports of Rare Earth Elements to control the market prices, and thus have an advantage over other supplying States; but what if Beijing actually imposed a ban (till 2014) not so much as a dishonest move but to conceal the lack of substantial reserves that could quench the thirst of the world's markets? This idea comes from the fact that while the ban, or quota system, was in place China had been buying REE from North Korea, Greenland and African nations.

Using Africa To Keep 'One's Reserves' High

China has been mining REE in Africa for quite some time and the MO has been quite interesting: it offers to either build or modernise African airports through Chinese construction and engineering companies – the same companies that use this opportunity to do some soil prospects. When REE reserves are identified they remove large amounts of soil in trucks all the way to ports, where the elements are shipped off to China for processing.

In 2004, Beijing started building the new Luanda International Airport, in the Bengo province, 55Km away from Luanda. We are now in 2018 and the airport is no way near completion. Notwithstanding, witnesses describe how trucks have been going back and forth full of soil. Our sources have also told us that the same has previously happened in the Longonjo area, in the province of Huambo, where the Chinese have been operating with no bother (rumour has it that Generals are involved in the ransack) – Longonjo also has a large reserve of REE.

Chinese companies have been mining Rare Earth Elements in Kenya (where China built two airports, in Nairobi and Kusumo), in Ethiopia (China built one airport), in Mozambique (China built one airport in Maputo and is now building another in Gaza), in Tanzania  (China built a military airport at Ngerengere, in the Morogoro region), in Mauritius (China modernised the airport at a cost of $260Mio), in Mali (China built its airport in Bamako), in the Republic of Congo (China upgraded the Maya-Maya airport in Brazaville), in Togo (China funded the new Lomé-Tokoin International Airport) etc, and they have been transporting them in a very careless way – what are the effects of this mining and laissez-faire transportation of REE not only to the environment but mainly to the health of the local population?

Growing Cases of Cancer in Targeted African States

Coincidences do not exist. Connecting the dots is what we do best: as China's Rare Earth Business in Africa bloomed, parallelly, the number of people stricken by Cancer (especially breast and cervical cancer) grew in incredible ways. This has been noted in Mali, in Mozambique, in Angola (where 6 new cases appear everyday), in Kenya, in Mauritius and in Ethiopia, for instance – coincidence? Never.

China's greed is slowly killing Africans. The African leadership is an accomplice because if they had any drop of patriotic decency, they would make simple demands like: manage REE in a careful way (to protect the environment and African populations), refine them locally (to generate jobs for the locals and other benefits for the national economy) and pay an environmental tax.

China has a motto: we do not interfere in your internal affairs and you do not interfere in ours. However, this cannot continue being a green light to greed, gross negligence and, as a consequence, negligent homicide. When will China start paying for its sins?

Globalism and Economic Interdependence brought out the worst in humans: relativism (that makes people turn a blind eye to evil). The world will no longer continue to make the African People suffer in total impunity – this is not a threat but a promise.


[The views expressed in this publication are solely those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Dissecting Society]