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Rare Earth Deposit Discovered In US
s31523 writes "With China having 97% of the market share of rare earth elements, many countries are nervous about being able to get supplies of key elements needed for high tech gear. Quantum Rare Earths Developments Corp. has reported they have discovered a potential huge source of rare earth elements, right in the middle of the U.S. While the USGS reports that the U.S. has an estimated 13 million metric tonnes available for mining (about 1/3 of China's reserves), finding another regular source is crucial to global stability. The potential yield of the deposit, found in Nebraska, could be the world's largest source for Niobium and other rare earth elements. Could this be the next gold rush?"
At stewarding its own resources, preferring instead to buy resources from other countries that do not have the level of regulation we have. We have plenty of oil, gas, rate earth metals etc... we just don't go after it.
Get your PostgreSQL here: http://www.commandprompt.com/
that the US has no shortage of rare earth deposits...we have shortage of rare earth refining....
next gold rush? nah the land, or at least the mineral rights will be bought by corporate interests who will make a ton of money and you won't see any individuals making it big off the rare metals, unless they happened to own the land and the mineral rights to it.
with the ever increasing price per ounce of gold, Gold is the next gold rush ;-)
We already knew that the USA had large deposits of rare earth elements.
It is just cheaper to buy them from China than to mine and process what is available domestically.
"You want to know how to help your kids? Leave them the fuck alone." -George Carlin
So Nebraska has something worthwhile! That is news!
Where does the signature go?
I have rare earth deposits in my pants!
The article mentions a Canadian company coming in and doing the work.
Not that I have a problem with Canadians, but you know, with jobs dying as they are, why couldn't we put this in the hands of some US workers?
After the last James Bond movie I'm slightly worried about any company called "Quantum" having control over a lot of resources in a specific area. I do have to say getting a monopoly on niobium is a lot more Bond-villainy than trying to charge a higher price for water in a poor South American country (seriously, lamest Bond villain scheme everrrr.)
More substantially, I'm not completely sure this sort of discover is a good thing in the long term. We need to get better at making advanced electronics without relying on these elements or we need to get much better at recycling electronics (preferably both). This sort of thing is good in the short-term but is to some extent delaying the inevitable. On the other hand, maybe it will give us more time to develop alternatives.
Note that TFA mentions the Mountain Pass Mine as shut-down for environmental concerns. However, that mine is undergoing renovation and modernization. It is suppose to resume operating soon. I'm not sure this new site has any intrinsic advantage over Mountain Pass, especially given that the estimates for this new site are still not strongly confirmed. The estimates discussed in the summary TFA may be quite optimistic.
Can we refine them here and export the waste to China for 'disposal,' or do we only get to ignore the environmental problem if they produce the waste themselves?
day goes by where slashdot isnt comparing something to china.
Good people go to bed earlier.
The last US Rare Earth mine closed because it was an ecological nightmare to smelt the ore, not because it ran out. Since this is a new vein and not a new smelting process, it'll be doomed to failure the exact same way, so will the (relatively) new vein in Idaho. Short of the EPA rolling over on a mine that will be a superfund site within months of opening in a Democratic administration (anyone want to figure the odds of that?), this mine will be a non-starter.
Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't out to get you
Most rare earth minerals are actually not that valuable. They're necessary and quite abundant. The reason China controls the trade is that they have been willing thus far to run operations which mine at great cost for minimal profit. They've been buying operations in Africa and on other continents where large stores are found. In order for a US company to want to mine these minerals there will have to be a critical uptick in price, and that will raise prices on a number of important manufactured goods.
This is good news for Nebraska. The western side of the state is very sparsely populated, and getting more so as kids leave small towns for the city. More than half the state's population live in the two cities of Omaha and Lincoln. Getting development and jobs out there will help keep small town life alive for longer.
The troubling part is that western Nebraska is over the Ogallala aquifer that supplies water to much of the plains states. I shudder to think what would happen if it got contaminated with rare-earths.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
Er, no. Rare earths aren't actually that rare. The reason we get them from China isn't because they have a monopoly on the source. They just have the cheapest labor to dig them out of the ground.
"Rare earths" aren't that rare. They're just at low concentrations, which makes for an inefficient mining operation. Getting rid of the waste products is a big problem. Molycorp has re-opened a rare earth mine in California, and is expanding capacity.
There are other rare earth mines in the US. There's no shortage of places to mine. It's just that, until recently, it wasn't profitable.
So where exactly are these environmentalists? Do you have a real citation, or do you just need an excuse to whine?
Posting anonymously because there are a lot of whiners around and many of them have mod points.
... at St-Fulgence, there is actually a nobium mine as seen at http://www.iamgold.com/English/Operations/Operating-Mines/Niobec-Niobium-Mine/default.aspx Accoring to IAMGOLD, there would be 316.3 million kg of Nb2O5...
So what if there are minerals? We have lots of natural mineral and petroleum and other fossil fuel resources all over the US. Every time anyone wants to mine or drill for them, the environmentalists step in a file lawsuits to stop or delay the mining or drilling.
In southern California, environmentalists are trying to stop solar power stations out in the desert by suing to prevent the power lines that would carry the electricity to where people live.
So there's a solution to the rare earths problem. What difference does it make if we won't be allowed to use it?
Wasn't there an abundant supply found by Japan near Hawaii recently. Even if the cost is more and there are ecological questions that need to be answered (and we better answer them) - these two recent discoveries shouldn't be ignored. We need to build up a local industry through tax breaks if necessary so that we don't remain dependant on China for this. There may come a day when we and China arn't the best of friends... like if we default on the debt we owe them... or something like that!
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
Yeah, yeah! I heard about it. It is called Unobtainium right?
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
"finding another regular source is crucial to global stability"
Ha! It's in the US, it's good for US stability! Sheesh, like the primary concern of the US is strictly the world at large. I'm a liberal and a citizen of the world (as much as anyone else), but let's be honest here.
The US is rich in natural resources. Yes, the jobs may go overseas - but our mineral deposits, forests, fisheries, energy resources (coal, to name 1), and all the other things I'm forgetting to mention - will stay here. (Assuming we don't let our international trade policy to become lopsided against our general well being.)
PS: I don't reply to ACs.
...are buing more lobbyists, congressmess, and getting ready to deregulate something. They aren't sure yet, but if the U.S. is going ot mine resources, there has to be something worth getting profit from.
Seriously? Being pro-environment does not automatically make somebody anti-business or anti-mining. Just like being pro-choice doesn't automatically mean you think people should have abortions. Or being a Christian doesn't automatically mean you hate non-Christians.
If you see protestors, and disagreee with them, by all means go ahead and rail against them. But this just reads like paranoia. I'm sure a safe, environmentally controlled mining operation would be welcomed by most. And some extremeist on both sides will always disagree. That's called freedom of dissent. That's one of the things Americans fight and die for. Get used to it.
We should harness the collective knee-jerk energy of the US as an alternative fuel source. Hell, the energy people spend daily looking over their shoulder for the next bogeyman could power Times Square for a week.
You cannot get "niobium and other rare earth elements" out of this mine, because niobium is not a rare earth. The deposit does contain niobium ores, and rare-earth ores, but they are not in the same category.
Is it too fucking hard to edit the submission to make it correct?
I'm betting it's Chile and its Atacama Desert that comes to the rescue.
The press kit is here.
The US and Canada has plenty of rare earth metals, but our environmental standards make it too expensive to extract.
Quick, everyone! Some country has a rare metal we can harvest. Grab a gun and let's invade.
Perhaps I'm trolling, perhaps I'm not.
There's IRONY in this here post! Wee-hee! *prospector dance*
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
Screw that, the reality is so long as we can get them cheaper elsewhere we should. That way we have them after the prices go up.
No doubt someone will find some endangered lizard or flower and permanently fence the area off from any kind of mining.
Nobium is not a rare earth element. It is however a part of coltan, which is a sought after mineral that is mined in congo and a major cause of civil war in that region.
China tries to put on the squeeze, prices go up, people get an incentive to start looking, and here we are. Stories like this show why scarcity is so often a myth.
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Most landowners got conned out of their mineral rights in the 60s and 70s.
The were either not developed or closed because they were more costly than offshore. But that is changing.
Probably the same phantom environmentalists that supposedly picket nuclear plants 24/7.
Many of the comments here seems to be made by U.S. citizens ... and they sound like U.S. is the only country on this planet. Like they were buying the resources from other planets until now.
Why would everyone share their resources with the whole planet (and mostly with U.S.) and why would U.S. not share theirs ? The others resources were cheaper ? Of course they are cheaper, at least until you start digging yours.
Why would U.S. wait until every others resources became extinct and then start mining theirs? Isn't this the same old strategy to live on the others back ? Like a virus ?
The same strategy like printing more dolars and voting for increasing the debt, so U.S. can print more money and make everyone else work for them by giving them "money/dolars" (actually papers) ?
Is it by accident that the resources are being found just now ?
Lot of questions in my head.... no answers...
Sorry, using our natural resources for our own benefit harms the environment, so those resources are going to stay right there.
At least until some big corporation bribes congress into giving them a monopoly on the stuff. We can't have any of that pesky competition and free market forces driving down prices for consumers now can we?
The GP may be referring to the protests of the tress sitters in California, but then this isn't trying to save the Redwoods and it isn't in California. Nebraska is out of the way so no one will notice and the local towns will probably enjoy the economic boom. Much like the oil boom in North Dakota.
Time to offend someone
What will our government, representing our interests*, ask them in return for exploiting what belongs to all of us and selling it back to us for a premium?
Glass beads and a warm squeeze of the hand?
* Yeah, I know⦠good jokeâ¦
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
I just want to celebrate!
Hmmmm... A Canadian company wants to strip mine Nebraska for mineral resources. I guess I'm OK with that. TFA says the locals are excited.
Some mornings it's hardly worth chewing through the restraints to get out of bed.
China?
AMEX:GMO
nuff said. watch this one.
Not RE (Rare Earth's are not really rare, infact they are almost everywhere - just like thorium lol - just unfeasable to mine and make a profit).
there has been fear of being exploited by China for rare-earth ores (which later happened) so there was plenty of motivation to find an alternatives to make electric motors for electric vehicles.
one option is being developed into a possible replacement, the switched reluctance motor.
it's not perfect but at least someone is thinking ahead.
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
North Platte has that big rail yard in it! so mine the rare earth and use rail to ship it.
The only way to get them to work is to have someone with a whip stand behind them. That will only get them to work hard enough not to get whipped.
You would be better off just having the whip cracker do the work.
No country that runs its economy on slavery has ever been able to out compete a country of free people working for their own benefit.
Black slaves did not build the USA. They didn't even build the south.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
Not yet. They need economic growth, manufacturing jobs, and educated students to become China. Of course an attitude of disdain towards the environment is needed too, but the Republicans are well on their way to making sure that's reality.
There was never a shortage of rare earths in the ground, it's that the US let China dig it up and pollute their environment in return for US dollar oil.
queue the environmentalists!
It doesn't exactly leap out at you, does it?
All these other countries are loading the markets with pricy rare-earth metals knowing that they could lose their demand when someone invents a technique of enriching non-rare molecules like what has always been hypothesized to bumping up the atomic value of Lead into Gold.
The United States is just ruining America in these regards, disenfranchising the progress of America to allow the world to grow higher around, and haven't you heard that buying all those foreign imported rare-earth metals from slave-countries of communists that are practical enemies to the American way of life is not good? Conside the fact that Slashdot refuses to report about the 1 of 4 Technology Zones between the Chinese and US Government where the 1st of which will be a 50-square-mile self-sustaining communist factory-town south of Boise Idaho. All the US dollars are being used to sell-out America to import hundreds of thousands of loyal Chines Communists into these 30k-plus acre estates that they own perhaps giving them the perspective to strip-mine America like the Chinese are doing to Africa.
Something tells me that the United States has been bought-off to keep out of the competitition, but then who can compete with communist slave-made goods? Winning any wars yet? Little Chinatown, Little Saigon, Koreatown, Santa Ana, Little Haiti, boomshakalaka? America is the only country that re-creates it's super-heros from White people to pass-on to multi-cultural ethnicities that have never once invented any technology to save their own country and that's why America has been flooded with all these cowards. It's no different than all the Jewish propoganda trying to claim Jesus Christ was Jewish instead of Odinist.
Oddly, other nations, like Canada and many in EU, have the ability to mine it cheaply AND clean their environment. Only in America where our Execs make 10-100 x what other nation's exec make, do we seem unable to do so. Why is that?
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
You scream about environmentalist and say that we will not mine rare earth. Yet, California pass re-starts later this year. Likewise, they will be doing the refining HERE, and producing magnets in USA. So, california pass's re-start shoots down the BS about not having any. In addition, other nations have plenty of mining and that includes Canada and many nations in EU. How clean are their operations? Clean.
The problem is NOT environmentalist. It is business execs that want to have the lowest cost by producing goods in a similar fashion as China. It is not going to happen. Yet companies make loads of money by simply putting up a clean operation right from the gitgo.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
"Not enough minerals."
Man who leaps off cliff jumps to conclusion.
Yes, because reality is so perfectly modeled in videogames. Tell me again, when I get killed, where will I respawn? :-)
He put his boots up on the table and made a face. "The sig," he smirked. "You can waste your life in search of the sig."
"Rare Earth" elements aren't really rare. They're rarely mined and refined on a large scale because the industry is filthy, and in the US we have laws to protect us from the really expensive healthcare that ensues from the pollution, to say nothing of protecting us from the pollution itself. China subsidizes its rare earth dominance the way it does everything else: by hiding the costs of the pollution and abuse of its labor.
Every day the news is filled with loaded stories pushing the US to drop our defenses and sink into the filth that China makes its money from, but which we left behind as soon as we realized we had too much dignity and power over our lives to suffer that way.
BTW, US oil is what's rare. And the high costs of extracting what we do have are proven all the time, like Exxon polluting Yellowstone this Summer and BP sleazing the entire Gulf of Mexico last Summer.
--
make install -not war
its all on eight rack tape. :o
Because obviously slave labor never completed a single pyramid. :-) As for the South, take a look at some of the antelbellum structures in Georgia. Plantation owners made money hand-over-fist. If you've got a repetitive, labor-intensive task, like moving rock or farming sugar, cotton or tobacco, slave labor works great.
Even today, the CCA corporation makes a ton of money off slave prison labor. We could industrialize agriculture tomorrow and have robots pick crops like they build cars, but the ready availability of easy exploited illegal labor means we make more money not doing so.
Don't kid yourself. Just because slave labor can't do your job as well as you can doesn't mean the company won't outsource your job anyway. All we have to do is show we'll save payroll costs in the next 90 days, and the layoff is a done deal, the hell with the consequences on day 91.
He put his boots up on the table and made a face. "The sig," he smirked. "You can waste your life in search of the sig."
Yes, put the money in the hands of government so that it can efficiently spend it on bureaucracy.
Let the government spend it on the care,feeding, and education of illegal aliens while ignoring the needs of people who are and have come here legally.
Lets keep giving government workers raises, while non-government workers pay is cut or eliminated. And lets give the members of congress, and their staffs raises, because that way we can't squander our money.
Lets give the new San Diego State University president $400,000 ($100,000 over the previous) a year job while raising tuition for students because there is not enough money in the budget.
Fight Spammers!
"William of Ockham had no beard. The most likely explanation is that it was chewed off by squirrels every morning."
You, sir, win an internet.
Posting anon because you are a PUSSY
When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
And connect this with the constant anti-china propoganda (which seems from the comments, despite how well they're filtered, to fail to fool the denizens here) to be the US striving for self sufficiency prior to war with china (or at least a breakdown of diplomatic relations) conveniently letting the US off the hook on the 1.4 trillion dollars owed. Being especially paranoid and doing tinfoil hat thinking it seems the US will have an attack from china that opens all the doors in your prisons (that cost more than the minimum wage per prisoner held) blame it on china and since cyber attacks are acts of war... BOOM!
in other news scotch is good! *hic*
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Why should the US give a shit about slave wages or how workers are treated in other countries? Why is that our job? And I wouldn't worry to much about China trying to withhold exports of rare earth elements because if they tried the US could reciprocate with food exports to them. US food exports to China has increased 5 fold over the past 10 years and is one of the primary reasons their world economy trade surplus has been all but eliminated. If I had 1 wish in regards to the world economic system it would be for the US to develop the means and technology to eliminate any reliance on oil. We are not to far away from being able to accomplish that. Germany had to create synthetic oil during WW2 and the technology to do this is much more advanced today than it was back then. Let the middle east countries learn how to eat sand because without a US demand for oil they would have nothing, Even with their current oil exports their countries are still destitute and shit holes except for the people at the top and even if oil export revenue disappeared tomorrow they have enough money to move to more civilized countries and live in the lap of luxury to the end of time. The US could also finally ignore that entire region and worry about ore important things. Oh, Canada might take a hit but at least they could stop damaging their environment with their oil sands operations. As an extra benefit the US could also eliminate the need to deal with Venezuela.
The largest gold deposit in the world is in Alaska and it isn't being developed because no one will start digging because it could cost billions in court costs to be able to extract the first ounce of gold. The environmentalists are holding up real mineral development today. The funny thing is that most of the "environementalists" holding up Alaska Gold are Rich Republicans wanting to keep their land holdings artificially inflated and exempt from the free market forces that the political party they support talks about all the time. So conservatives are paying environmentalsts to stir up trouble. The second largest group of "environmentalists" are the fishing industry. The third largest is the Canadian Gold Industry trying to make sure the US doesn't dig up enough gold to hurt their profits. There are no hippie environmentsalists against the Alaskan gold near Iliamna. Only rich conservatives who are anti-environmentlists paying environmentalists to support their interests and a few pseudo-environmentalists that are interested because of the millions they make supporting conservative anti-mining positions. Yay US free market environmentalists, for sale to the highest bidder to be the invisible hand wherever the invisible hand needs its own invisible hand to help it along...
Learn to love Alaska
No, IMO. air loom seeds, water, foraging, fishing skills and equipment. That's what you need.
Is Quantam Rare Earths Developments Corp publicly traded? Do they have the mineral rights to mine these metals?
For optimal comment enjoyment, take red pill now.
Suddenly the fascination with the asteroid belt begins t make more sense.
It's less that we need more than it is that we need to be able to get at it without forcing people to move, and wtihout cleaning up afterward. But I think, just as we find that we can't just dump junk off the the space station, refining and manufacturing in space may not be the ecological freebie it seems like.
Computer memory is just fancy paper, CPUs just fancy pens with fancy erasers; the 'net is just a fancy backyard fence.
It's not about whether it can be got elsewhere, it's all about whether they can mine it as cheaply as China does.
Hopefully whoever creates the mine doesn't try to get-rich-quick(tm) by selling it off to China YET AGAIN. We've had rare earth magnet assets in the past, and they were all sold off to China during the 90s. :(