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> “Mines on land are soon going to run out,” Scott says. “Every electronic device in the world has rare earth [metals] in it ... we need raw resources.” Rare e
by mnw21cam 9y ago
> “Mines on land are soon going to run out,” Scott says. “Every electronic device in the world has rare earth [metals] in it ... we need raw resources.”
Rare earth mines on land are nowhere near running out.
- FRex 9y agoAnd they can (apparently, I'm not an expert) be reclaimed. It's very technically challenging and expensive but they are still in all these old devices in Chinese landfills. They are not used up, I'd call them 'raw materials' not 'raw resources'. Oil and coal are 'raw resources' that you can't get back after they are used up. One could even make an argument that time and money could be better spent researching a better recycling process for e-trash than trying to mine the ocean floor.