Rare Earth Metals
Did you know that most of our electronic devices are manufactured using Rare Earth Metals? Just what are Rare Earth Metals? They include indium, gallium, lanthanum, yttrium, europium and neodymium. Lanthanum is required to make nickel metal hydride batteries, used in hybrid cars. Neodymium is essential for motors and generators like those used in wind turbines. These metals are found only in a few places on Earth, and the US relies on imports for 100% of its supply.
Did you know that most of our electronic devices are manufactured using Rare Earth Metals? Just what are Rare Earth Metals? They include indium, gallium, lanthanum, yttrium, europium and neodymium. Lanthanum is required to make nickel metal hydride batteries, used in hybrid cars. Neodymium is essential for motors and generators like those used in wind turbines. These metals are found only in a few places on Earth: China, Australia and North America, with a few deposits in India, Brazil, Malaysia and South Africa. Chinas Inner Mongolian region is by far the richest in these deposits and provides more than 95% of the worlds supply. The US relies on imports for 100% of its supply. Rare Earth mining is not pretty. A mine in Californias Mohave desert, first opened in the early 1950s, is about one-quarter of a mile wide, and over 500 feet deep. It was closed in 2002 for environmental violations and because of plunging global prices. While our new technologies are dependent on these Rare Earth Metals, production of Rare Earth Metals has leveled off, prices are increasing, and global dependence on Chinas exports have as well. For the U.S. this is partly due to environmental regulations and higher wages that make their extraction more expensive. A question before us is whether we are willing to pay the true costs in environmental damage and for less destructive mining, as well as for safe, clean work conditions and good pay to mine these Rare Earth Metals in our own backyards? A yet bigger question is that of ultimate supply. Are we devising new technologies that depend on a set of ingredients that will soon peak in supply? And then what? Source: Craig Canine Onearth, Summer 2009, pp.15-16.
Date Posted: 7/14/2009