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> but the liberals did not want the pollution in California, so as a result, they closed down the mine (before it reopened for a bit and then went into Chapter

> but the liberals did not want the pollution in California, so as a result, they closed down the mine (before it reopened for a bit and then went into Chapter 11 bankruptcy last year) Oh, so it was the fault of liberals, and not of dumping by China? That's news to me. Besides, Tesla Motors has shown that the good old AC induction motor, which uses such rare materials as copper, iron, and aluminum, works quite nicely as an automotive drive motor. You seem to be conflating lithium mining with rare earths here.

tkahnoski 9y ago
'liberal' sounds like over-generalization that's common today. 'environmentalist' would have been a more specific political label.
- usmeteora 9y ago
  I didn't say all liberals, I said liberals. I'm not sure there were any republicans apart of this but there could have been. I concede this to you, I should not over generalize. I don't identify entirely with either and being assumed to be one or the other is annoying but more importantly degrading society as a whole with these increasingly polarizing and decreasingly diverse categorizations.
usmeteora 9y ago
rare earths become rare earths not when they decrease in abundance, but when the places in which they are legally allowed to be mined and processed are restricted due to local environmental resitrictions, to foreign locations which have the ability to restrict exportation. This is why Elon Musk worked with the new company in Nevada to start a new mining company in Nevada.... Lithium is used in the charging walls and I am not sure about Teslas batteries but regardless, Elon Musk seems to find decreasing the perceived rareness of lithium economically a huge priority.... please read about lithium and the tripling in price, and how global economics effects what is considered rare earth vs its occurence in parts per million or billion in the earths crust: This Elon Musk in light of lithium tripling in price in 2015 and many times before that due to the rarity in its production locations, in which the prohibition of producing it in this country increases the rarity/price/cost/pollution of transporting it is exactly WHY hes went to Japan to work with new battery technology, why hes building manufactoring system dedicated to it, an R&D plant dedicated to it to get away from lithium, and reducing the cost of lithium production, making it less of a rare earth metal in the commodities market by day, and why hes working with a mining company in Nevada to utilize materials mined in this country to do so. https://lasvegassun.com/news/2017/mar/20/lithium-how-a-mineral-found-in-nevada-could-power/ https://lasvegassun.com/news/2017/mar/20/lithium-how-a-miner...
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
usmeteora 9y ago
In regards to the China dumping: yeh I don't think we should dump radioactive material in the desert, but if the goal is to have a greener earth and not pollute, I'm not sure how relocating the source of pollution halfway around the world reduces pollution, and then spending more energy to ship the prius back to california. I'm sorry but if there are problems with the way we do something, but we still want the benefits (products) offered from the materials of that process, shipping the process off to another country which is untransparent about its practices, is not a solution to the problem...its just throwing the clutter in the closet for the guests. out of site out of mind.
usmeteora 9y ago
here is the link to the mining company, you can watch the award winning documentary on their site about being the second internal lithium production company in the country, and how its closely linked to Elon Musks's ventures http://fortune.com/2016/03/29/lithium-tesla-mine-nevada/ http://fortune.com/2016/03/29/lithium-tesla-mine-nevada/ http://www.nevadamining.org/ http://www.nevadamining.org/ http://fortune.com/2015/09/16/tesla-lithium-gigafactory-nevada/ http://fortune.com/2015/09/16/tesla-lithium-gigafactory-neva... and on and on the source of information goes. Clearly while its technically in the earths crust as an abundant element, economically its rare in production and worth the 4.6 billion in investment to bring it in for local production.

tkahnoski 9y ago

'liberal' sounds like over-generalization that's common today. 'environmentalist' would have been a more specific political label.

usmeteora 9y ago
I didn't say all liberals, I said liberals. I'm not sure there were any republicans apart of this but there could have been. I concede this to you, I should not over generalize. I don't identify entirely with either and being assumed to be one or the other is annoying but more importantly degrading society as a whole with these increasingly polarizing and decreasingly diverse categorizations.

usmeteora 9y ago

rare earths become rare earths not when they decrease in abundance, but when the places in which they are legally allowed to be mined and processed are restricted due to local environmental resitrictions, to foreign locations which have the ability to restrict exportation. This is why Elon Musk worked with the new company in Nevada to start a new mining company in Nevada.... Lithium is used in the charging walls and I am not sure about Teslas batteries but regardless, Elon Musk seems to find decreasing the perceived rareness of lithium economically a huge priority.... please read about lithium and the tripling in price, and how global economics effects what is considered rare earth vs its occurence in parts per million or billion in the earths crust: This Elon Musk in light of lithium tripling in price in 2015 and many times before that due to the rarity in its production locations, in which the prohibition of producing it in this country increases the rarity/price/cost/pollution of transporting it is exactly WHY hes went to Japan to work with new battery technology, why hes building manufactoring system dedicated to it, an R&D plant dedicated to it to get away from lithium, and reducing the cost of lithium production, making it less of a rare earth metal in the commodities market by day, and why hes working with a mining company in Nevada to utilize materials mined in this country to do so. https://lasvegassun.com/news/2017/mar/20/lithium-how-a-mineral-found-in-nevada-could-power/ https://lasvegassun.com/news/2017/mar/20/lithium-how-a-miner...

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

usmeteora 9y ago

In regards to the China dumping: yeh I don't think we should dump radioactive material in the desert, but if the goal is to have a greener earth and not pollute, I'm not sure how relocating the source of pollution halfway around the world reduces pollution, and then spending more energy to ship the prius back to california. I'm sorry but if there are problems with the way we do something, but we still want the benefits (products) offered from the materials of that process, shipping the process off to another country which is untransparent about its practices, is not a solution to the problem...its just throwing the clutter in the closet for the guests. out of site out of mind.

usmeteora 9y ago

here is the link to the mining company, you can watch the award winning documentary on their site about being the second internal lithium production company in the country, and how its closely linked to Elon Musks's ventures http://fortune.com/2016/03/29/lithium-tesla-mine-nevada/ http://fortune.com/2016/03/29/lithium-tesla-mine-nevada/ http://www.nevadamining.org/ http://www.nevadamining.org/ http://fortune.com/2015/09/16/tesla-lithium-gigafactory-nevada/ http://fortune.com/2015/09/16/tesla-lithium-gigafactory-neva... and on and on the source of information goes. Clearly while its technically in the earths crust as an abundant element, economically its rare in production and worth the 4.6 billion in investment to bring it in for local production.