2 ms·

Something similar was "thought of" for rare earths but I don't think anything practical has come of that yet. Opening new mines in the US is not a process I'd c

by aksss 5y ago

Something similar was "thought of" for rare earths but I don't think anything practical has come of that yet. Opening new mines in the US is not a process I'd call quick. It's more in the "I'll believe it when I see it" column. You think getting a pipeline across the Midwest is difficult? Just try strip-mining in Alaska. But yeah, if the government is serious about securing supply chains, then it's not enough to have semiconductor manufacturing here, one also needs to be able to source the inputs closer to home (quartz, etc). And I'm not even sure it requires government to directly fund the manufacturing/mining - it would be enough if government took a "not-hostile" attitude towards the environmental and engineering approvals, and then incentivized domestic sourcing.

livueta 5y ago
I'd have thought the same as you, though I very recently heard some hopeful news on that front: https://www.marketplace.org/2021/04/30/the-u-s-is-trying-to-reclaim-its-rare-earth-mantle/ https://www.marketplace.org/2021/04/30/the-u-s-is-trying-to-... The relevant part is kind of buried but tl;dr: new mines do take a while (but are in the works). Luckily, there are old mines that can be productively restarted: > “Our mission as a company is to restore the full supply chain,” said James Litinsky, CEO of MP Materials, the new owner of the U.S.’s only rare-earth mine, located in Mountain Pass, in California’s Mojave Desert. > “We are probably further ahead than people realize.” > MP Materials restarted the mine in 2017; the previous owner, Molycorp had declared bankruptcy a few years prior. > “It was mismanaged for some time,” Litinsky said. Mountain Pass’ reserves are particularly rich in rare earths and now supply, in unpurified form, 15% of the rare earths consumed globally each year.

2 ms·

Something similar was "thought of" for rare earths but I don't think anything practical has come of that yet. Opening new mines in the US is not a process I'd c

by aksss 5y ago

livueta 5y ago
I'd have thought the same as you, though I very recently heard some hopeful news on that front: https://www.marketplace.org/2021/04/30/the-u-s-is-trying-to-reclaim-its-rare-earth-mantle/ https://www.marketplace.org/2021/04/30/the-u-s-is-trying-to-... The relevant part is kind of buried but tl;dr: new mines do take a while (but are in the works). Luckily, there are old mines that can be productively restarted: > “Our mission as a company is to restore the full supply chain,” said James Litinsky, CEO of MP Materials, the new owner of the U.S.’s only rare-earth mine, located in Mountain Pass, in California’s Mojave Desert. > “We are probably further ahead than people realize.” > MP Materials restarted the mine in 2017; the previous owner, Molycorp had declared bankruptcy a few years prior. > “It was mismanaged for some time,” Litinsky said. Mountain Pass’ reserves are particularly rich in rare earths and now supply, in unpurified form, 15% of the rare earths consumed globally each year.