4 ms·
"The 'rare' in the name "rare earths" has more to do with the difficulty of separating of the individual elements than the scarcity of any of them. " https://e
by GlibMonkeyDeath 2y ago
"The 'rare' in the name "rare earths" has more to do with the difficulty of separating of the individual elements than the scarcity of any of them. "
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lanthanide https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lanthanide
The lanthanide series of elements is interesting because the 4f levels that are getting filled are actually physically closer to the nucleus than the outer orbitals, so their chemical properties are very similar between elements. That also makes them hard to separate from one another.
Unless there is a special Norwegian process for this separation, I am not sure this announcement will mean much.
- dmix 2y agoAre some mines easier to seperate than others? Or is it a niche industrial skill?
- georgeecollins 2y agoYes, some ground is easier to process, but that isn't the limiting factor. But the real cost is the toxic waste created and labor and the ground is super torn up because you process so much. It helps if you can do it far away from people. Hopefully they have a better plan to clean up afterward.
- veqz 2y agoUnfortunately this is also in pretty decent farming land. The land owners will be compensated, but I understand many don't feel too happy about leaving their farms...
- georgeecollins 2y agoThis is one of those weird narratives where you see stories about rare earth minerals are thought to be rare like gold, not rare as in practically everywhere but in very small quantities. They used to mine rare earth metals in California. It's terrible for the environment and labor costs are high. But in an emergency you could do it there and many other places.
- dvh 2y ago"cloud computing" -> "someone's elses computer" "serverless" -> "pay per request" "rare earth minerals" -> "hard to process minerals"