
Japan found hundreds of years’ worth of the minerals used in batteries and EVs - danielam
https://www.wsj.com/articles/japan-hopes-rare-earth-find-will-give-it-an-edge-against-china-1523446948
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redcap
"The mining of rare-earth minerals was at one time dominated by the United
States. The People's Republic of China has since come to dominate the market."

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rare-
earth_mineral](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rare-earth_mineral)

Presumably because China doesn't mind the cost to its miners or the
environment (for now).

If that should change then it might start to be viable to mine this deposit.

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Mcguffed
Fun fact most, of the production came from the Mountain Pass rare earth mine,
it's on the right side of the highway when you drive from Vegas to LA

~~~
SkyMarshal
There was a recent article talking about the history of that mine, how rights
were sold to a Chinese-led Consortium during the free-market 90s.

[http://theweek.com/articles/765276/how-china-win-trade-
war-1...](http://theweek.com/articles/765276/how-china-win-trade-war-1-move)

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kuroguro
paywall bypass: [http://archive.is/dVqGI](http://archive.is/dVqGI)

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CryptoPunk
Rare earth metals aren't actually that rare. They're just very polluting to
mine, and thus mines outside China were closed.

~~~
microcolonel
> _They 're just very polluting to mine_

Why exactly is that? I can't see why some polluting process would be common to
all of them, and unavoidable.

~~~
xaldir
You do not find them individually, which means you have to separate elements
with close chemical properties.

More often than not, the deposits contains relatively low concentrations of
the stuff along with other minerals.

To quote Wikipedia¹

> (...) during the extraction of the ores from rocks, a significant amount of
> water usage and wastewater production. Also, acidic substances are used
> during the extraction process, which can leach in to the soil and
> surrounding environment. In addition, due to the low abundance and varying
> spatial distribution of REEs, the mining process uses a significant amount
> of energy(...)

[1][https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rare-
earth_element#Environment...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rare-
earth_element#Environmental_Pollution)

~~~
ianai
So why aren’t they stripping materials from disposed electronics? I’ve heard
it’s done, but it doesn’t seem highly common.

~~~
byproxy
I believe this has been propose as the more economically sound solution :
[https://wasteadvantagemag.com/old-electronics-could-be-
more-...](https://wasteadvantagemag.com/old-electronics-could-be-more-
profitable-than-literal-gold-mines/)

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pcarolan
If these are underwater and the mining process on land is already extremely
toxic. Does this mean that mining them underwater will release large amounts
of toxins into the ocean?

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azinman2
My limited understanding is the toxic part is less the mining and more the
refining — the acid baths that raw material goes into to extract the metals.
I’d assume that’d need to be on land.

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NullPrefix
Is it me or does the title make it sound like the minerals were found in the
batteries and EVs?

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BrandonMarc
China has controlled the market on these for some time, using this control to
its geopolitical advantage many a time. If Japan wants the right to merely
compete in the market, they're in for a fight.

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outworlder
It is interesting that the newest Pacific Rim mentions that the alien's
objective is the "rare-earth" minerals in Japan. Was this just a coincidence
or did the writers do some actual research?

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memeweaver
For national security purposes alone the Chinese monopoly on rare earths must
end.

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cambaceres
That dude is fed up

