A taste of things to come?

I get sent some interesting snippets by readers which often highlight things an optical journalist wouldn't necessarily stumble across.

My attention was drawn by a leading manufacturer to this article which appeared in the Telegraph at the weekend. It concerns the domination of the market for rare earth metals by the Chinese and their spiralling price.

The topic isn't completely new but it is interesting, possibly alarming, to find that a compound used in optical manuafcture has risen in price fifteen fold in the last twelve months.

Needless to say rare earth metals are crucial to the manufacturing process and being able to be assured of their continued supply is crucial to future planning for everyone. Whether the reason for their price increase is accidental or not is irrelevent. If you can't get hold of the material you can't polish the glass moulds that plastic lenses are cast in, that is a real problem be it politically or commercially generated.