

Rare-earth mining rises again in United States - Natsu
http://arstechnica.com/science/2012/05/rare-earth-mining-rises-again-in-united-states/

======
DennisP
One impediment has been heavy restrictions on thorium, which is a waste
product of heavy rare earth mines. Some people are trying to get those
restrictions modified, to allow both rare earth mining and development of
thorium reactors.

------
pm90
This is perhaps too soon, but I had read of asteroid mining a few weeks back.
Do asteroids harbor these rare earths? The mining process seems pretty messy.
I wonder if we could get minerals that way, there would be no need to do more
damage to our environment.

~~~
ars
It'll be a decade or more before asteroid mining goes anywhere. Probably
decades even.

And mining this is not any messier than mining anything else.

~~~
defrost
Not all mining is the same.

Copper / Gold mines tend to be extraction of a concentrated deposit by either
open pit or tunnel, while there are exceptions they tend to be limited in
surface area affected.

Mineral sands mining for rare earths is often akin to strip mining for large
broad area coal seams - very large areas are turned over just to access a thin
layer - where mineral sands occur beneath old growth forest it's often the
case that the entire forest would have to be removed, as opposed to a gold
mine that might simply tunnel beneath.

Other techniques of note include uranium leach mines where a well head pumps
fluid underground and other well heads extract dissolved salts, this leads to
relatively small amounts of surface disturbance, and (for the hell of it)
marine based alluvial diamond dredging - performed by barges across deposits
from current or ancient river mouths. Again, not a lot of surface disruption.

The extraction of a billion dollar lead/zinc deposit two thirds of the way up
a mountain in Greenland will be very different to any usual rare earth
extraction.

Greenland Deposit :: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvUol1aS8UA>

------
keyle
I work in mining so I'm greatful to have found this and read it.

It baffles me, however, how could this ever make it on hacker news?

~~~
defrost
Technology.

China currently has a massive grip on rare earth production, ergo a massive
influence on the future of iPods & mobile widgets. Without alternative mines
the bulk of technology production in the world that's centred about rare earth
usage will migrate to China for the costs breaks ...

------
Tichy
Is there a chance to gradually replace these rare-earths by more common stuff?

~~~
ars
No. rare-earths have very unusual properties not found in other elements.

BTW, don't let the name "rare-earth" confuse you - not all of them are
actually rare, they are just called that.

~~~
lunarscape
Actually Japan has invested heavily in creating replacements for certain rare-
earths since China (temporarily) cut exports to them a while back. So has the
US. See "Research: Removing rare-earth" [1]

[1] [http://eandt.theiet.org/magazine/2012/04/releasing-the-
rare-...](http://eandt.theiet.org/magazine/2012/04/releasing-the-rare-
earths.cfm)

------
redwood
Exciting to see some good news for California's economy!

