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Nope. This is a misconception. Batteries don't have rare-earth materials in them. Lithium, nickel, and iron are very plentiful in the US. The "rarest" of ma
by cogman10 5mo ago
Nope. This is a misconception.
Batteries don't have rare-earth materials in them. Lithium, nickel, and iron are very plentiful in the US. The "rarest" of materials that might be mined is Cobalt. That, however isn't because it's a hard to find. Rather, cobalt has basically no industrial applications outside of battery production. And, importantly, not all battery chemistries require cobalt, just the nickel manganese cobalt batteries.
Idaho has a cobalt mine that's not currently in operation. The reason is because demand is super low and the artisanal mines in africa are cheaper than spinning up a full industrial mine.
- pfannkuchen 5mo ago> artisanal mines in africa Just want to say this is an entertaining euphemism. It isn’t that labor conditions are poor and work is done by hand, it’s “artisanal mining”.
- WarmWash 5mo agoThat's literally what they are called.
- readthenotes1 5mo agoBecause "death traps for children" might be perceived negatively by some
- deleted 5mo ago[deleted]
- quickthrowman 5mo ago> Rather, cobalt has basically no industrial applications outside of battery production. Cobalt is a part of high speed steel and all kinds of metal alloys that have specialized applications, almost 40% of cobalt is used for metallurgical purposes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cobalt#Applications https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cobalt#Applications
- cogman10 5mo agoI missed this the last time I looked. I'm guessing it doesn't get pulled as much for steel because of recycling?
- mitthrowaway2 5mo agoAlso in high performance magnetic steel, as well as SmCo magnets.