4 ms·

I've seen speculation that rare earth mining is environmentally destructive enough that it faces massive (expensive) regulatory hurdles in the US. Much easier t

I've seen speculation that rare earth mining is environmentally destructive enough that it faces massive (expensive) regulatory hurdles in the US. Much easier to pay politicians in less developed countries to do it there. https://e360.yale.edu/features/china-wrestles-with-the-toxic-aftermath-of-rare-earth-mining https://e360.yale.edu/features/china-wrestles-with-the-toxic...

barbequeer 2y ago
if there's one thing we can be sure of with the current administration, it's that regulatory hurdles aren't going to stop them doing what they want
- dmix 2y ago
  Companies still have to follow state and local laws.
rjbwork 2y ago
One reason they're running roughshod over the EPA, among other agencies.
Animats 2y ago
Mountain Pass, one bankruptcy back, beat that problem. It took some new technology. The system is closer to closed-loop, rather than using huge amounts of water and producing huge amounts of sludge in evaporation ponds. That's what the mines in China do, and the sludge ponds are visible from orbit. Here's the Sierra Club report from 2011.[1] They were OK with the mine. So was the state of California and the US EPA. Problem solved. Then in 2015, after all this was working, China cut the price of rare earths.[2] Mountain Pass mine shut down, and Molycorp, the owner, went bankrupt. But the equipment was stored and maintained. When the price of rare earths from China went back up the next owner, MP Minerals, bought the assets and restarted operations. This time, the new buyers made long-term deals with the US DoD and General Motors to guarantee a market at a price at which they could operate. That seems to be working. Much news coverage of mineral issues tends to lack background. Better info is available, but it's on mining industry sites, in USGS reports, and in places most people don't read. Punditry is cheap. Reporting is expensive. [1] https://www.desertreport.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/DR_Spring2011.pdf https://www.desertreport.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/DR_S... [2] https://www.forbes.com/sites/timtreadgold/2015/05/15/chinese-rare-earth-glut-triggers-a-price-collapse-and-environmental-crisis/ https://www.forbes.com/sites/timtreadgold/2015/05/15/chinese...

barbequeer 2y ago

if there's one thing we can be sure of with the current administration, it's that regulatory hurdles aren't going to stop them doing what they want

dmix 2y ago
Companies still have to follow state and local laws.

rjbwork 2y ago

One reason they're running roughshod over the EPA, among other agencies.

Animats 2y ago

Mountain Pass, one bankruptcy back, beat that problem. It took some new technology. The system is closer to closed-loop, rather than using huge amounts of water and producing huge amounts of sludge in evaporation ponds. That's what the mines in China do, and the sludge ponds are visible from orbit. Here's the Sierra Club report from 2011.[1] They were OK with the mine. So was the state of California and the US EPA. Problem solved. Then in 2015, after all this was working, China cut the price of rare earths.[2] Mountain Pass mine shut down, and Molycorp, the owner, went bankrupt. But the equipment was stored and maintained. When the price of rare earths from China went back up the next owner, MP Minerals, bought the assets and restarted operations. This time, the new buyers made long-term deals with the US DoD and General Motors to guarantee a market at a price at which they could operate. That seems to be working. Much news coverage of mineral issues tends to lack background. Better info is available, but it's on mining industry sites, in USGS reports, and in places most people don't read. Punditry is cheap. Reporting is expensive. [1] https://www.desertreport.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/DR_Spring2011.pdf https://www.desertreport.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/DR_S... [2] https://www.forbes.com/sites/timtreadgold/2015/05/15/chinese-rare-earth-glut-triggers-a-price-collapse-and-environmental-crisis/ https://www.forbes.com/sites/timtreadgold/2015/05/15/chinese...