[Carry_Okie]

Do the folks who keep reading these alarming news articles ever do some research into what it takes to mine this stuff and why there are "difficulties"?

Do the people who point to "technical problems" ever do some research to see why they are overblown? Could it be that there are VERY well connected American "investors" in Chinese rare earth mines?

From the article:

Ed White, who owns a family mining business in the area is one of many whose business will now be destroyed. "The Sierra Club was just used, in my opinion, by Feinstein's bankers friends and the railroad or their land company Catellus, to create the public perception that these lands are fragile and threatened by development," said White.

"The truth appears to be just the opposite. The scattered railroad lands that could never be developed are to be consolidated into a single block of 226,000 acres so they can be developed.

JMB Realty stands to make a huge profit on this development. In the name of "rewilding" millions of acres of desert, grave financial and environmental damage will occur once the land is closed to the public.

Ninety-seven the U.S. rare earth mineral production comes from the California desert. These minerals are used in high technology and are essential to the production of lasers, high-power magnets, super conductivity and pollution free cars. The United States will now be forced to obtain these minerals from foreign mineral cartels.

[muawiyah]

There are always finaglers and schemers in every mining venture anywhere on Earth.

Doesn't matter if there's radioactivity!

When there is radioactivity WE ALL have a special interest in it especially if we eat stuff DOWNHILL from the mines.

BTW, thorium is found worldwide. Earth has vast quantities of it. This is the stuff that decays and heats the interior ~ keeps that iron core liquid ~ and that generates the magnetic field that keeps harder radiation from space cooking all of us.

I love thorium, but in its place!