Having the ore isn’t the problem.
Refining it is the problem, because it generates so much toxic waste.
That’s why China does most of the refining, because they don’t worry about silly things like generating toxic waste.
U.S. Strengthens Its Rare Earth Supply Chain With New Processing Plant
oilprice.com ^ | 6/11/2020
Posted on 6/14/2020, 10:00:38 PM by bitt
USA Rare Earth, the funding and development partner of the Round Top heavy rare earth project and Texas Mineral Resources announced Thursday that its rare earths pilot plant processing facility in Wheat Ridge, Colorado has received the required permits and officially opened.
Once fully commissioned, the plant will be focused on group separation of rare earths into heavy (dysprosium, terbium), middle, and light (neodymium, praseodymium) rare earths (REE’s) and will be the first facility to separate the full range of rare earth elements in the US since 1999.
USA Rare Earth’s pilot plant is the second link in a 100% US-based rare earth oxide supply chain, drawing on feedstock from its Round Top deposit.
The final phase of the pilot work will be the further separation of high-purity individual REE compounds. The pilot plant will also be focused on the recovery of non-REEs focusing on lithium, uranium, beryllium, gallium, zirconium, hafnium, and aluminum, all of which are on the US Government Critical Minerals List.
Confirming the recovery of these critical non-REEs will support upgrading the measured and indicated resources to proven and probable reserves (with no in-fill drilling required), and completion of the Preliminary Feasibility Study (PFS) for the Round Top project, the company said.
(Excerpt) Read more at oilprice.com ...
Exactly... Like... Where are they going to find enough child laborer’s to dig this stuff up with? Doh!
Mining in China is so much easier.
We can develop safe ways to refine them - they are too critical for us to rely on others for them.
“That’s why China does most of the refining, because they don’t worry about silly things like generating toxic waste.”
************
Nor reclamation costs either I would imagine.
“Having the ore isn’t the problem.
Refining it is the problem, because it generates so much toxic waste.
That’s why China does most of the refining, because they don’t worry about silly things like generating toxic waste.”
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Indeed.
All toxic waste of every system is containable. All that affects is $$.
What will make this unuseable are treehuggers in every state that have ALREADY succeeded in blocking every other attempt to mine the same minerals. Would-be mines are all over the US. Each one got killed in a court where some treehuggers (funded by the CCP,no doubt) claimed that toxic waste would be impossible to control.
BS!