5 ms·

Tiny village in Nebraska hides world’s largest rare earth mineral deposits

25 points by ukdm 15y ago

pohl 15y ago
Elk Creek is a 30 mile drive from where I was born and raised.
- mikelbring 15y ago
  Where is that at? I grew up in Peru outside of Auburn, went to school in Auburn.
  - pohl 15y ago
    Awesome! I was born in Auburn, grew up in Brock, took piano lessons at and skateboarded the hills of Peru, and went to high school in Johnson. Small world. My first exposure to computation was in a basement room at Peru State College, where Stan McCaslin set me up to play Trek on a line printer terminal that was dialed into some machine in Omaha. A couple of years later, the TRS-80 Model I was released, so this was quite a while ago.
    - mikelbring 15y ago
      I think you're a lot older :). I graduated Auburn High School in 2007. My parents still live in Peru (I moved to Arkansas), my dad works at Cooper Nuclear Station.
      - pohl 15y ago
        Yeah, I was class of `86, so I could be your dad. ;-)
saulrh 15y ago
"largest untapped deposit" Emphasis mine. This is still an awesome find, but it would be better if these deposits were also large in absolute terms. Is there any chance someone has found better details?
- blutonium 15y ago
  It's a pretty sizable deposit, but it's underground. That means it'll be pricier to extract, and not all of the ore can be mined. Looks like lower grade than the Chinese deposits currently mined too, and it's a different mix of elements. http://www.quantumrareearth.com/projects.html http://www.quantumrareearth.com/projects.html http://www.iamgold.com/English/Operations/Operating-Mines/Niobec-Niobium-Mine/Mining-Processing/default.aspx http://www.iamgold.com/English/Operations/Operating-Mines/Ni... - a similar deposit in Quebec. http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2002/fs087-02/fs087-02.pdf http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2002/fs087-02/fs087-02.pdf - good summary of REEs
guynamedloren 15y ago
For those of us who are unfamiliar, could somebody share some insight or background on these rare earth minerals?
- curt 15y ago
  Rare Earths are deposits of exotic minerals used in nearly every advanced technology today (wind mills to MRI's). California used to produce the entire world supply until China undercut the price. As demand boomed (prices going way up) and China started using them as a trade weapon so companies started looking for sources in more stable countries.
- uvdiv 15y ago
  They're a row of elements on the periodic table (lanthanides) which have a broad range of industrial uses (see the wiki). It is a misnomer, as many of them aren't particularly rare. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lanthanide http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lanthanide http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rare_earth_element http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rare_earth_element They occur all over the world. The US was once the leading producer, but (IMHO unreasonable) regulation forced its mines to close (they were in California). Currently China produces virtually all of them (97%-99%). There's a geopolitical stink about their protectionism: they're restricting exports, which (to my understanding) means they're intervening in favor of Chinese rare-earth consuming manufacturers (e.g. electronics industries). There's also human issues, in that the mines are a major pollution source and health hazard, and many (NYT estimates half) are operated illegally by crime syndicates. http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2002/fs087-02/ http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2002/fs087-02/ http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/22/us-china-rareearth-idUSTRE72L10I20110322 http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/22/us-china-rareearth... http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/07/14/us-china-rareearth-eu-idUSTRE76D3Q620110714 http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/07/14/us-china-rareearth... http://www.economist.com/blogs/babbage/2010/09/rare-earth_metals http://www.economist.com/blogs/babbage/2010/09/rare-earth_me... http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/30/business/global/30smuggle.html?pagewanted=all http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/30/business/global/30smuggle....
  - joe_the_user 15y ago
gtvwill 15y ago
I could have sworn china only held 97% of the worlds current stock of processed rare earth minerals...rather than the actual deposits themselves. Not to mention the rarity of these processed minerals elsewhere is not due to the scarcity but rather due to the heavy processing & costs required to extract them...Which is why the mines that do so are rare in their own way.
- pedalpete 15y ago
  I was questioning that same statistic. I was under the impression that China had been buying up rare earth mines in South America and though mines do exist in China, that they do not possess the largest volume of rare earth minerals. However, this bbc article http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-14114107 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-14114107 quotes that china 'supplies 97%' of the worlds rare earth minerals. I think China has managed to essentially corner the market.
- jessriedel 15y ago
  > Not to mention the rarity of these processed minerals elsewhere is not due to the scarcity but rather due to the heavy processing & costs required to extract them. This distinction is only important if we consider a future where technological advances significantly bring down the cost of extraction. Here and now, the only thing that is important is the amount that is extractable for a reasonable price. (Or, more specifically, the shape of the supply curve.) If there were a trillion trillion tons of the stuff behind an invisible force-field that we couldn't get past, that would nominally remove the scarcity but it wouldn't practically matter.
  - _delirium 15y ago
    True, but the barriers can also be of several types, which would matter when looking at how persistent they're likely to be. For example, if China dominates because its reserves are significantly easier to extract technically (e.g. closer to the surface, higher concentration), that would be a different situation than if it's more due to environmental or regulatory policies, or to labor costs.
  - 15y ago
killerswan 15y ago
This may vindicate what I've been saying for years: "we don't need to mine asteroids, there's more of whatever you want in some corner of Nebraska!"
nyrath 15y ago
I was under the impression that the extraction and purification of rare earth elements was such an ecological catastrophe that environmental protection laws in the US had made the existing mines in the US so unprofitable that they shut down.
- 46Bit 15y ago
  It's a little more complex than that, but I'd say that's what it boils down to. There's all sorts of horrible stuff that gets mined along with the rare earths, much of it exceedingly hazardous.
nitrogen 15y ago
I wish articles about rare earth mineral use in high-tech devices would be more specific about which minerals are used in what components. They love to say that LCD monitors, cell phones, etc. use rare earth elements, but why, and how?
trebor 15y ago
Looks like a good opportunity to relegalize mining and do a responsible job of mining it out. This kind of wealth could really help repay our debts and help our economy improve. And possibly make things cheaper to make microcircuits here, rather than in China (where they'd love to sneak some malware into our government/intelligence agencies). Nitpick: Sounds like they're "sitting on" rather than "hiding" the deposit.

25 points by ukdm 15y ago

pohl 15y ago

Elk Creek is a 30 mile drive from where I was born and raised.

mikelbring 15y ago
Where is that at? I grew up in Peru outside of Auburn, went to school in Auburn.
- pohl 15y ago
  Awesome! I was born in Auburn, grew up in Brock, took piano lessons at and skateboarded the hills of Peru, and went to high school in Johnson. Small world. My first exposure to computation was in a basement room at Peru State College, where Stan McCaslin set me up to play Trek on a line printer terminal that was dialed into some machine in Omaha. A couple of years later, the TRS-80 Model I was released, so this was quite a while ago.
  - mikelbring 15y ago
    I think you're a lot older :). I graduated Auburn High School in 2007. My parents still live in Peru (I moved to Arkansas), my dad works at Cooper Nuclear Station.
    - pohl 15y ago
      Yeah, I was class of `86, so I could be your dad. ;-)

saulrh 15y ago

"largest untapped deposit" Emphasis mine. This is still an awesome find, but it would be better if these deposits were also large in absolute terms. Is there any chance someone has found better details?

blutonium 15y ago
It's a pretty sizable deposit, but it's underground. That means it'll be pricier to extract, and not all of the ore can be mined. Looks like lower grade than the Chinese deposits currently mined too, and it's a different mix of elements. http://www.quantumrareearth.com/projects.html http://www.quantumrareearth.com/projects.html http://www.iamgold.com/English/Operations/Operating-Mines/Niobec-Niobium-Mine/Mining-Processing/default.aspx http://www.iamgold.com/English/Operations/Operating-Mines/Ni... - a similar deposit in Quebec. http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2002/fs087-02/fs087-02.pdf http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2002/fs087-02/fs087-02.pdf - good summary of REEs

guynamedloren 15y ago

For those of us who are unfamiliar, could somebody share some insight or background on these rare earth minerals?

curt 15y ago
Rare Earths are deposits of exotic minerals used in nearly every advanced technology today (wind mills to MRI's). California used to produce the entire world supply until China undercut the price. As demand boomed (prices going way up) and China started using them as a trade weapon so companies started looking for sources in more stable countries.
uvdiv 15y ago
They're a row of elements on the periodic table (lanthanides) which have a broad range of industrial uses (see the wiki). It is a misnomer, as many of them aren't particularly rare. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lanthanide http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lanthanide http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rare_earth_element http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rare_earth_element They occur all over the world. The US was once the leading producer, but (IMHO unreasonable) regulation forced its mines to close (they were in California). Currently China produces virtually all of them (97%-99%). There's a geopolitical stink about their protectionism: they're restricting exports, which (to my understanding) means they're intervening in favor of Chinese rare-earth consuming manufacturers (e.g. electronics industries). There's also human issues, in that the mines are a major pollution source and health hazard, and many (NYT estimates half) are operated illegally by crime syndicates. http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2002/fs087-02/ http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2002/fs087-02/ http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/22/us-china-rareearth-idUSTRE72L10I20110322 http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/22/us-china-rareearth... http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/07/14/us-china-rareearth-eu-idUSTRE76D3Q620110714 http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/07/14/us-china-rareearth... http://www.economist.com/blogs/babbage/2010/09/rare-earth_metals http://www.economist.com/blogs/babbage/2010/09/rare-earth_me... http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/30/business/global/30smuggle.html?pagewanted=all http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/30/business/global/30smuggle....
- joe_the_user 15y ago

gtvwill 15y ago

I could have sworn china only held 97% of the worlds current stock of processed rare earth minerals...rather than the actual deposits themselves. Not to mention the rarity of these processed minerals elsewhere is not due to the scarcity but rather due to the heavy processing & costs required to extract them...Which is why the mines that do so are rare in their own way.

pedalpete 15y ago
I was questioning that same statistic. I was under the impression that China had been buying up rare earth mines in South America and though mines do exist in China, that they do not possess the largest volume of rare earth minerals. However, this bbc article http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-14114107 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-14114107 quotes that china 'supplies 97%' of the worlds rare earth minerals. I think China has managed to essentially corner the market.
jessriedel 15y ago
> Not to mention the rarity of these processed minerals elsewhere is not due to the scarcity but rather due to the heavy processing & costs required to extract them. This distinction is only important if we consider a future where technological advances significantly bring down the cost of extraction. Here and now, the only thing that is important is the amount that is extractable for a reasonable price. (Or, more specifically, the shape of the supply curve.) If there were a trillion trillion tons of the stuff behind an invisible force-field that we couldn't get past, that would nominally remove the scarcity but it wouldn't practically matter.
- _delirium 15y ago
  True, but the barriers can also be of several types, which would matter when looking at how persistent they're likely to be. For example, if China dominates because its reserves are significantly easier to extract technically (e.g. closer to the surface, higher concentration), that would be a different situation than if it's more due to environmental or regulatory policies, or to labor costs.
- 15y ago

killerswan 15y ago

This may vindicate what I've been saying for years: "we don't need to mine asteroids, there's more of whatever you want in some corner of Nebraska!"

nyrath 15y ago

I was under the impression that the extraction and purification of rare earth elements was such an ecological catastrophe that environmental protection laws in the US had made the existing mines in the US so unprofitable that they shut down.

46Bit 15y ago
It's a little more complex than that, but I'd say that's what it boils down to. There's all sorts of horrible stuff that gets mined along with the rare earths, much of it exceedingly hazardous.

nitrogen 15y ago

I wish articles about rare earth mineral use in high-tech devices would be more specific about which minerals are used in what components. They love to say that LCD monitors, cell phones, etc. use rare earth elements, but why, and how?

trebor 15y ago

Looks like a good opportunity to relegalize mining and do a responsible job of mining it out. This kind of wealth could really help repay our debts and help our economy improve. And possibly make things cheaper to make microcircuits here, rather than in China (where they'd love to sneak some malware into our government/intelligence agencies). Nitpick: Sounds like they're "sitting on" rather than "hiding" the deposit.