On Saturday, March 28th, the first reported tailings spill of 2020 contaminated local water sources in Heilongjiang Province, China. The largest molybdenum mine in China, operated by Yichun Luming Mining Co, released 2.53 million cubic meters of tailings into the… More »
With all the innovation in the market today, consumers are constantly upgrading their electronic devices. Many consumers are making the responsible decision to recycle their unwanted electronic items. When managed properly, parts of their old electronics could be reused and potentially enter the supply chain again, thus decreasing the need to mine precious metals.
The House Majority recently introduced HR 4402 a bill called the National Strategic and Critical Minerals Production Act of 2012. The authors cleverly spell out the purported purpose in a series of whereas clauses that form the bill’s preamble. Ostensibly, the problem wants to solve is a dearth of domestic production of so-called rare earth or critical minerals. These minerals consist mainly of those elements in the bottom two rows of the periodic table and have varied applications in electronics, hybrid technology, renewable energy, and defense industries.
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We use rare earths in a wide range of modern conveniences, from consumer electronics to hybrid car batteries.
Recently, rare earths have been in the news thanks to skyrocketing prices. High prices are a result of increased demand due to new technologies and artificially limited supply – artificially limited by China, which currently controls more than 90% of global rare earth mineral production, but less than 40% of known deposits.
Rare earth minerals are expensive and dangerous to mine, not to mention the environmental impacts common to all mining, in addition to radioactive waste concerns.