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?"

Comments

The U.S. is notoriously bad

[poet]

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.

nil chance

[waddgodd]

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.

Re:nil chance

[Anonymous Coward]

You should tell that to these guys http://www.molycorp.com/

They just reopened a rare earth mine in CA. Quick, go tell them they can't do what they've already done! Molycorp developed a way to extract the minerals without the pollution. Pretty smart considering pollution needs to be cleaned up and that clean up costs a ton of money. But don't let long term cost savings get in the way of your hippy hate. And no, I'm not a hippy, but I see the value in reducing costs by eliminating or reducing clean up. China will one day have to clean up the waste and it's going to cost a pretty penny. They love it now, but that debt will come due. Molycorp following EPA guidelines should reduce the total tally we owe.

Re:nil chance

[NeutronCowboy]

Considering that Tea Party Republicans want to defund the EPA, there's a non-zero chance of this actually happening. We can then find out first-hand the costs that China is paying for being the world's foremost exporter of rare earth ore.

Re:nil chance

[Lehk228]

the republican option of reducing costs by ignoring pollution and allowing the corporate shell to go bankrupt from fines after shareholders have gotten their money is more efficient, as long as you are a shareholder and don't live nearby

if you really want to unfuck the country repeal the concept of limited liability to shareholders, if a business goes under and still owes, take it out of the hides of everyone who has gotten a dividend or capital gain from owning shares of that company. suddenly actual corporate responsibility, instead of talking a lot of bullshit, will be important

Re:We knew this...

[Sir_Sri]

ya, rare earths are well... not rare. Some of them are rare in specific cases, but generally they aren't.

One can argue about the need for a certain production capacity being outside of china, simply because, but that is more of a security cost than anything else. and paying people to extract stuff from the ground that there isn't a market for (since demand is already met by china) is just going to waste a pile of money, whether that is worth it is another matter.

Since demand for rare earths is increasing there's a legitimate business interest in expanding production, but they would probably go with india or brazil rather than US production.

Re:next gold rush?

[eepok]

The "rush" isn't in the resources itself, but the stocks of the company. If you do a GoogleNews search for "rare earth" and "nebraska", you'll find that them majority of the reports are through "market" sources. It's hype so that day traders will invest thus allowing original investors to sell at higher prices, get out, and watch it deflate because they all know that rare-earth mining and smelting is such a dirty business that the EPA won't allow it.