4 ms·

Sadly for China, rare Earth elements aren’t actually all that rare

• zeristor 2y ago
  Tricky to process, and normally found with Thorium for some reason, I think the Thorium waste is what processing it toxic, I think I’m just a humble physics graduate. I did watch a video about the processing of some of the rare earths, to refine three of them a series of ion exchanges were used, very interesting but I can see why they’d be so expensive.
• deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
• robthebrew 2y ago
  THe purification is the problem, not the mining
  • EA-3167 2y ago
    It isn't a technical problem though, it's just a lot easier when you have China's trio of: Government subsidized energy Criminally cheap and unsafe labor No cares for the local environmental effects It's a cost issue, because in the US or EU none of those three factors are present. Instead we've all 'outsourced' that mess to China.
    • cjbenedikt 2y ago
      "...criminally cheap and unsafe labor..." Source?