Rare Earth Deposit Discovered In US 338
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?"
Gold rush my butt. More like a dirt rush. (Score:4, Informative)
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.
Nebraska (Score:5, Informative)
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.
Not that rare (Score:5, Informative)
"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 [envisionreports.com] has re-opened a rare earth mine in California, and is expanding capacity.
There are other rare earth mines in the US. [popsci.com] There's no shortage of places to mine. It's just that, until recently, it wasn't profitable.
Re:next gold rush? (Score:5, Informative)
There is a very good reason for this. Rare earths aren't really that rare. What makes them "rare" (or I should say scarce) is how difficult it is to process them into their raw oxide. This is not an easy process. You can't just dig them out of the ground and sell the dirt to a laser making company.
So the next company that will be coming online is the Australian Lynas Corp with their processing plant in Malaysia and the worlds largest single rare earth deposit in Western Australia. The Malaysian processing plant is costing a lot of money to build - not the sort of capital an individual has.
Check this out:
http://www.lynascorp.com/page.asp?category_id=1&page_id=25
That gives you an idea of how rare earths have outpaced gold in the last 2 years.
Next I believe is USA's Molycorp (I may be wrong on that but I think that is right).
Re:Will environmentalists allow mining? (Score:5, Informative)
You've been brainwashed by professional liars. The United States does not have "lots of petroleum". We do have lots of coal, and we dig it up at a rate of over a billion tons per year. We have lots of natural gas, and we mine it at a rate of tens of trillions of cubic feet per year.
The people you listen to are paid big bucks to keep you outraged and misinformed. Stop listening to them.
Re:What we really have....is (Score:4, Informative)
It's all over the place for a while, especially on /.. A ten second search would turn up enough stuff to study for some time. We still have our old REE mines as well as newly discovered ones. it's not that China has them all, but more that they can extract them cheaply due to labor and environmental costs as doing so usually involves lots of harsh solvents and left overs.