I'm happy to assure the author that a new spice war based around exotic metals such as lithium and the rare earth elements is highly unlikely, thanks to the large quantities of these materials scattered in various mineral deposits around the world. As a geologist, I'm aware of the world's largest lithium deposit located at Greenbushes in Western Australia which has only just come back into production as lithium prices have increased. Most of the rare earth elements whose production is currently dominated by China occur in a mineral called monazite which is at present a waste product in the world's mineral sand (titanium and zircon) mines of which there are several in Australia. As shortages develop for these rare earth elements or as their prices increase, so monazite will be recovered and sold in response to its improving economics.

I have heard this comment about electric car motors needing rare
earths in a number of articles.
I don't think that can be correct as the motors in modern designs are AC
and do not use permanent magnets.
Even if they were to use DC motors they would not need to have
permanent magnets as series wound motors would normally be used.

Ming and Bernie,

You both seem to know more than I do on this subject, however you do not provide any data/references to support your case. This is a good forum to debate this topic.

The comment "competition in resources between Japan and China is no longer limited to traditional commodities such as oil, coal and natural gas." seems to show some ignorance of history as these groups of people have been competing for many resources, including food, salt and above all land.

Thanks, Stezza. Some of the information you're after is confidential - the Greenbushes lithium mine is now owned by a private company, Talison Minerals - see http://www.talisonlithium.com/ , and they aren't required to provide detailed information to the public as they're not listed on any stock exchange. Galaxy Resources is a public company developing a lithium deposit on the south coast of Western Australia while Reed Resources has another deposit in the goldfields that they're very bullish about.
For monazite, the listed companies whose annual reports might contain some information are Iluka Resources and Tiwest, but there are many companies around the world mining ilmenite, rutile and zircon with monazite as a potential by-product. Some countries like India and Brasil have large resources of monazite but, because it contains radioactive thorium, the deposits are mainly mined by government-controlled companies and little information is available publicly.