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"Rare" earth metals are actually not that rare. The reason we (in the west) don't mine much is that they are very dirty to refine. We don't want pools of toxi

"Rare" earth metals are actually not that rare. The reason we (in the west) don't mine much is that they are very dirty to refine. We don't want pools of toxic waste left over from refining all over the place but China etc will tolerate those. Given the ore itself is (ironically) quite common, all the mining happens where the refining happens because why would you bother shipping tonnes of ore there when is so common.

guerrilla 4y ago
No, that's not the only reason. It's also just currently a lot cheaper in China, so European mines can't afford to operate (I believe due to the very low density of deposits), so we keep the closed in reserve. There's awareness that this is probably a strategic mistake but as far as I know nobody's doing anything about that yet.
- ElectricalUnion 4y ago
  > this is probably a strategic mistake A larger strategic mistake would be having lots of very large and both military and natural disaster vulnerable tailings ponds everywhere in your country "just because there is the possibility of a strategic mistake if we don't mine stuff". It doesn't take more that a dozen of those Tailings dam failures to completely ruin a small country.
- noselasd 4y ago
  It's more about China being strategic. They subsidies rare earth mining enough that very few others are able to compete and set up sustainable mining operations.
  - swagasaurus-rex 4y ago
    Undrselling the market only makes sense if you recoup your losses by jacking up the price once your competition has gone under
defrost 4y ago
The Mt Weld rare earths mine located in the Goldfields Region of Western Australia is one of the highest grade rare earth mines operating in the world [1]. The ore is initially drilled and blasted and the blasted ore is excavated and loaded on to trucks. The trucks transport the mined ore to the concentration plant located 1.5km away from the mine. The ore at the concentration plant is crushed before being fed to the ball bill, after which it undergoes flotation. The flotation concentrate is thickened and filtered and the final concentrate is subsequently shipped to the east coast of Malaysia to the Lynas Advanced Materials Plant in Kuantan, where the concentrate is processed [2] to produce separated Rare Earths Oxide (REO) products. Step [2] is the significantly nasty step and typically occurs awy from mine sites that produce concentrates for input. For further overview, see (for example): Rare Earth Elements: Overview of Mining, Mineralogy, Uses, Sustainability and Environmental Impact [3] [1] https://www.nsenergybusiness.com/projects/mt-weld-rare-earths-mine/ https://www.nsenergybusiness.com/projects/mt-weld-rare-earth... [2] https://lynasrareearths.com/about-us/locations/kuantan-malaysia/ https://lynasrareearths.com/about-us/locations/kuantan-malay... [3] https://www.mdpi.com/2079-9276/3/4/614 https://www.mdpi.com/2079-9276/3/4/614
- LatteLazy 4y ago
  I weirdly think Aus would be one of the best places to do this sort of work. There are huge (truly gigantic) areas of the outback where pollution would not bother anyone. A trade oriented, democratic country etc could provide refined metals for densely populated areas to use.
  - defrost 4y ago
    > There are huge (truly gigantic) areas of the outback where pollution would not bother anyone. That's exactly what the British colonisers said when they engaged in a bit of atomic testing at Maralinga, leaving Aboriginal people blinded, affected by radiation poisoning and left with an ongoing legacy of radiation-related health problems. I expect we're less in favour of a repeat of that kind of dumping of the side effects of first world problems on indigenous people than you seem to be. Or .. you reckon we should agree to be rounded up and shipped off to the reservation again? [1] https://genius.com/Paul-kelly-and-the-messengers-maralinga-rainy-land-lyrics https://genius.com/Paul-kelly-and-the-messengers-maralinga-r...
culi 4y ago
> Because of their geochemical properties, rare-earth elements are typically dispersed and not often found concentrated in rare-earth minerals. Consequently, economically exploitable ore deposits are sparse (i.e. "rare") https://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2002/fs087-02/fs087-02.pdf https://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2002/fs087-02/fs087-02.pdf For all intents and purposes, they are in fact "rare"

guerrilla 4y ago

No, that's not the only reason. It's also just currently a lot cheaper in China, so European mines can't afford to operate (I believe due to the very low density of deposits), so we keep the closed in reserve. There's awareness that this is probably a strategic mistake but as far as I know nobody's doing anything about that yet.

ElectricalUnion 4y ago
> this is probably a strategic mistake A larger strategic mistake would be having lots of very large and both military and natural disaster vulnerable tailings ponds everywhere in your country "just because there is the possibility of a strategic mistake if we don't mine stuff". It doesn't take more that a dozen of those Tailings dam failures to completely ruin a small country.
noselasd 4y ago
It's more about China being strategic. They subsidies rare earth mining enough that very few others are able to compete and set up sustainable mining operations.
- swagasaurus-rex 4y ago
  Undrselling the market only makes sense if you recoup your losses by jacking up the price once your competition has gone under

defrost 4y ago

The Mt Weld rare earths mine located in the Goldfields Region of Western Australia is one of the highest grade rare earth mines operating in the world [1]. The ore is initially drilled and blasted and the blasted ore is excavated and loaded on to trucks. The trucks transport the mined ore to the concentration plant located 1.5km away from the mine. The ore at the concentration plant is crushed before being fed to the ball bill, after which it undergoes flotation. The flotation concentrate is thickened and filtered and the final concentrate is subsequently shipped to the east coast of Malaysia to the Lynas Advanced Materials Plant in Kuantan, where the concentrate is processed [2] to produce separated Rare Earths Oxide (REO) products. Step [2] is the significantly nasty step and typically occurs awy from mine sites that produce concentrates for input. For further overview, see (for example): Rare Earth Elements: Overview of Mining, Mineralogy, Uses, Sustainability and Environmental Impact [3] [1] https://www.nsenergybusiness.com/projects/mt-weld-rare-earths-mine/ https://www.nsenergybusiness.com/projects/mt-weld-rare-earth... [2] https://lynasrareearths.com/about-us/locations/kuantan-malaysia/ https://lynasrareearths.com/about-us/locations/kuantan-malay... [3] https://www.mdpi.com/2079-9276/3/4/614 https://www.mdpi.com/2079-9276/3/4/614

LatteLazy 4y ago
I weirdly think Aus would be one of the best places to do this sort of work. There are huge (truly gigantic) areas of the outback where pollution would not bother anyone. A trade oriented, democratic country etc could provide refined metals for densely populated areas to use.
- defrost 4y ago
  > There are huge (truly gigantic) areas of the outback where pollution would not bother anyone. That's exactly what the British colonisers said when they engaged in a bit of atomic testing at Maralinga, leaving Aboriginal people blinded, affected by radiation poisoning and left with an ongoing legacy of radiation-related health problems. I expect we're less in favour of a repeat of that kind of dumping of the side effects of first world problems on indigenous people than you seem to be. Or .. you reckon we should agree to be rounded up and shipped off to the reservation again? [1] https://genius.com/Paul-kelly-and-the-messengers-maralinga-rainy-land-lyrics https://genius.com/Paul-kelly-and-the-messengers-maralinga-r...

culi 4y ago

> Because of their geochemical properties, rare-earth elements are typically dispersed and not often found concentrated in rare-earth minerals. Consequently, economically exploitable ore deposits are sparse (i.e. "rare") https://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2002/fs087-02/fs087-02.pdf https://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2002/fs087-02/fs087-02.pdf For all intents and purposes, they are in fact "rare"