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U.S. may be sitting on a gold mine in rare earth elements
Catholic Online ^ | July 22, 2013

Posted on 08/06/2013 1:50:02 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet

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1 posted on 08/06/2013 1:50:02 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

EPA will shut that mining down in a week or two.


2 posted on 08/06/2013 2:02:33 AM PDT by maddog55 (America Rising.... Civil War II)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

the chicoms aint gonna like this

zut alors!

looks like it’s back to chop stix exportation..


3 posted on 08/06/2013 2:08:46 AM PDT by jimsin
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
I seem to remember an article a few months back about Japan discovering a mother lode of rare earth minerals in an area of their territorial sea beds. And the kicker was that the technology to easily recover these rare earth deposits was already in use.

Anyone else remember this?
4 posted on 08/06/2013 2:51:03 AM PDT by Tainan (Cogito, ergo conservatus sum -- "The Taliban is inside the building")
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To: Tainan

From what I’m reading they’re all over, but only China has the processes and the will to use the toxic chemicals to leech them out. That’s why they control 95% of them, not geography so much. We have BANANA, which took the place of NIMBY.


5 posted on 08/06/2013 2:53:59 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet (I aim to raise a million plus for Gov. Palin. What'll you do?.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Rare earths aren't rare.

America has plenty of rare earth deposits. It has only one semi-working mine - I seem to remember this is due to onerous regulation.

We can't blame China for America's apparent inability to mine its own minerals.

6 posted on 08/06/2013 2:57:57 AM PDT by agere_contra (I once saw a movie where only the police and military had guns. It was called 'Schindler's List'.)
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To: Tainan

http://japandailypress.com/japan-finds-rare-earth-deposits-in-pacific-seabed-2125598/

Japanese researchers revealed on Thursday that they have discovered a possible rich source of rare earths on the Pacific seabed. The data they recovered suggests that the deposits could be 30 times better than China’s reserves, currently the source of 90% of the world’s supply of rare earths.


7 posted on 08/06/2013 3:09:03 AM PDT by Neidermeyer (I used to be disgusted , now I try to be amused.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Isn’t that headline a mixed metaphor? Or just a pleonasm?


8 posted on 08/06/2013 4:01:35 AM PDT by Lonesome in Massachussets (Doing the same thing and expecting different results is called software engineering.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

There must be one heck of a tailing pile out at that huge old gold mine called Homestead...? Think it’s Homestead, in maybe South Dakota. Try a google earth flyover, that is a major big hole! As I understand there are layers and layers of tunnels too. Would take a long long time to sift through all of that.


9 posted on 08/06/2013 4:36:20 AM PDT by Joined2Justify (sure am glad the gov never lied to me ..)
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To: Joined2Justify

Coal wash plants back in the 50s and 60s were unable to capture the minus quarter inch fine coal. Dozens of ponds full of fine coal were left behind in southern and central Illinois. In the 1980s, many of these ponds were reprocessed and the coal fines were recovered and sold.


10 posted on 08/06/2013 5:14:13 AM PDT by Eric in the Ozarks ("Say Not the Struggle Naught Availeth.")
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To: maddog55

Good find!

A lot of old mine tailings piles have a treasury trove of overlooked minerals such as rare earths. Once someone else spent time and money to mine it the first time, re-processing tailings is a snap, depending of course on the process necessary to extract the overlooked minerals.

This demonstrates another value of capitalism. Capitalists are always looking for a better way to add value through innovation, instead of waiting on gubmit to do it for us.


11 posted on 08/06/2013 5:24:33 AM PDT by X-spurt (Ready for the CRUZ missle.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

The problem isn’t finding the stuff or getting it out of the ground, it’s refining it. The Chinese don’t care about pollution, that’s why they have the market cornered. (At least that’s my understanding of matters.)


12 posted on 08/06/2013 5:26:54 AM PDT by Moltke (Sapere aude!)
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To: Joined2Justify

Yep, Homestead is in Lead, SD. Now shut down. It was loosely the storyline basis for the HBO Series Deadwood and kept producing gold until a few years ago.

There are so many tailings piles to re-process, Homestead being just one of them.


13 posted on 08/06/2013 5:30:46 AM PDT by X-spurt (Ready for the CRUZ missle.)
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To: Eric in the Ozarks

Friends made millions doing this, but the value was not really from the recovered coal fines and instead was from the huge tax credits, expiring several years back.


14 posted on 08/06/2013 5:34:59 AM PDT by X-spurt (Ready for the CRUZ missle.)
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To: Moltke

Exactly.


15 posted on 08/06/2013 5:36:12 AM PDT by X-spurt (Ready for the CRUZ missle.)
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To: Lonesome in Massachussets

“Isn’t that headline a mixed metaphor? Or just a pleonasm?”

Now I know why you are lonesome in Mass, using words like that. I had thought about pleonasms, I just had not realized there was a name for them. But then, again, many of you FReepers are so darned intelligent, I feel like a one year old living in a Latin only world, while my parents speak only penguinese. :-)


16 posted on 08/06/2013 5:49:45 AM PDT by Rannug ("God has given it to me, let him who touches it beware.")
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To: Rannug

Sorta a combination of dispensing snark and showing off...


17 posted on 08/06/2013 6:36:15 AM PDT by Lonesome in Massachussets (Doing the same thing and expecting different results is called software engineering.)
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To: Tainan

Here you go: “Japanese scientists have found vast reserves of rare earth metals on the Pacific seabed” http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3000427/posts


18 posted on 08/06/2013 7:07:16 AM PDT by Balding_Eagle (When America falls, darkness will cover the face of the earth for a thousand years.)
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To: Neidermeyer; Balding_Eagle; 2ndDivisionVet
Thanks Folks. Glad my memory is still working.

I guess that stuff isn't as 'rare' as they're telling us it is...;)
19 posted on 08/06/2013 7:15:57 AM PDT by Tainan (Cogito, ergo conservatus sum -- "The Taliban is inside the building")
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To: Lonesome in Massachussets

lol


20 posted on 08/06/2013 7:45:55 AM PDT by Rannug ("God has given it to me, let him who touches it beware.")
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