Move aims to protect environment, resources and regulate industry

Taxes will be increased on rare earth exports starting next year, the Ministry of Finance said on Tuesday, as China, the largest producer of the precious minerals, moves to protect the environment and its resources as well as regulate exports.

Rare earth, a group of 17 minerals, are a vital component in most of the world's new technologies and are used in high-tech processes ranging from wind turbines and hybrid cars to missiles.

The ministry did not specify which of the 17 minerals would be subject to the tax increase. Rare earth exports are currently subject to taxes ranging from 15 to 25 percent.

China has about 30 percent of global rare earth reserves, but produces 97 percent of the world's total. It reduced export quotas for 2010 to 60 percent of 2009 levels, causing alarm among importing countries, such as Japan, about supplies.

The market has yet to feel the impact of the announced tax adjustment.

"Our company will cut rare earth exports next year, but not on a large scale. The higher tariff will affect our exports," said a senior manager of Ganzhou Rare Earth Mineral Industry Co, in Jiangxi province, who declined to be named. The company is the largest State-owned heavy rare earth producer in the province.

Lin Donglu, secretary-general of the Chinese Society of Rare Earths (CSRE) and also chairman of Baotou Steel Rare-Earth (Group) Hi-Tech, the largest producer in the world, said the CSRE has proposed tariff adjustments to relevant ministries but declined to give details.

A new type of device could ultimately hold more data than flash memory.

Researchers in the U.K. have made a new kind of nanoscale memory component that could someday be used to pack more data into gadgets. The device stores bits of information using the conductance of nanoscale transistors made from zinc oxide.

The researchers published a paper about a prototype memory device fabricated on a rigid silicon substrate last week in the online version of the journal Nano Letters. They are now testing flexible memory devices in the laboratory, says Junginn Sohn, a researcher at the University of Cambridge Nanoscience Center and lead author of the Nano Letters paper.

The rest of the world is trying to find alternatives to these crucial materials.

For three weeks, China has blocked shipments of rare-earth minerals to Japan, a move that has boosted the urgency of efforts to break Beijing's control of these minerals. China now produces nearly all of the world's supply of rare earths, which are crucial for a wide range of technologies, including hard drives, solar panels, and motors for hybrid vehicles.

In response to China's dominance in rare-earths production, researchers are developing new materials that could either replace rare-earth minerals or decrease the need for them. But materials and technologies will likely take years to develop, and existing alternatives come with trade-offs.