Posted on 01/12/2023 10:29:14 PM PST by blueplum
Like the EnviroWeenees would every let them mine it.
Many of the rare earth elements are named after a mine in Sweden.
China only owns the Volvo car business….the truck and construction equipment part is still a Swedish company
The home country of SKF bearings
Rare earth ores often contain radioactive thorium , sometimes in very high concentrations, extracting the rare earth oxides leave behind a radioactive mess
.... and for China another opportunity for more acquisition of another country’s resources!
Is child labor also a factor?
Not so surprising.
Many of the “rare earth” elements were discovered in Sweden.
Scandium, Yttrium, Ytterbium, Holmium, Terbium, Erbium.
Many were found near the village of Ytterby.
Then start building thorium reactors.🤔
going to need some fossil fuel to get it out of the cold north.
Sweden’s geography gives it huge amounts of hydropower.
It can apply that to the problem.
Not diminishing the role of fossil fuels or nukes but Sweden has a unique advantage in hydro.
[singing] I just want to celebrate, another day of livin’...
Nice.
Last year my military son and I were discusing solar power. He said we were sending high quality quartz from the Carolinas to China. The Chinese used this to make solar panels, then ship them back to us. This seemed very energy wasteful so I researched, and discovered Cadmium Telluride. First Solar (Ohio?) produces thin film cadium telluride sheet which is sandwiched between glass panes, and is equal or better than quartz solar panels for energy produced, and price. It is environmentally sound because it is extracted from copper mine tailings (masses of earthen waste from copper extraction). Another element Indium, can be used for solar and can be extracted from Zinc mine tailings. It sounds like the Lapland deposits of rare earths are associated with Iron ore and may include Lithium and other rare earths.
It appears the Lapland deposits may be deeply buried and hard to extract because of environmental laws, but rare earths in already mined tailings are a much more accessible source since tailing ground is already an environmental waste land. Are there any US businesses already exploring and exploiting the combined mining and refining of various rare earths found in conjunction with mining waste? Sounds like an interesting business to develop. This link discusses telluride as used in thin film solar production
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cadmium_telluride_photovoltaics
The mining giant Rio Tinto is planning soon to mine cadmium telluride in Utah to help grow the solar panel industry. First Solar wants to do major expansion of its production.
Extraction of rare earths from tailings and other mining waste is a promising source. As more companies and countries expand their rare earth production, the Chinese may decide they want to be a bit more polite to their rare earch customers. Why kill their own golden goose with unnecessary hostilities? After all, their own people are eager to have the cell phones and all the other modern “toys” made possible with rare earth chemicals.
Thanks glee’!
https://freerepublic.com/focus/news/4061757/posts
https://freerepublic.com/tag/saltonsea/index
Thanks for two interesting links. The first reports Lithium in CA’s Salton Sea and has 2 comments with a large number of Lithium links, as well as other potential US Lithium bonanza sites. The second link is to the Salton Sea Search site with links going as far back as 2002.
This is a valuable source of more information for anyone wishing to promote Lithium production in the US for political, military, or business reasons..
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