On Tue, Mar 13, 2012 at 8:45 AM, OrionWorks - Steven Vincent Johnson
orionwo...@charter.net wrote:
China, citing... Environmental concerns? Yeah, right.
Once upon a time, I had a great concern about rare earths, mainly
neodymium. Along with other interested parties, we researched other
sources of rare earth elements (REE). REE are not really rare. Placer
mines, eg veins of easily obtained REE are rare. Placers are not really
veins like gold but settlement sands which are rich in the REE.
The Mountain Pass mine in California was the largest producer of REE from
1965 until it was shut down in 2002. It actually was shut down due to
environmental concerns. Thorium and radium are two pollutants resulting
from REE mining. Mountain Pass will open again this year thanks to the
Chinese.
Today new techniques are being exploited to mine REE. Toyota Tsusho will
begin production of some REE from Indian mine tailings where India had
mined thorium and uranium.
Our research indicates that iron mine tailings also have a significant
amount of REE and we have mountains of iron tailings. A secret technique
is presently in the works to tap this resource. I don't know a lot about
it; but, it grew from an invention which used a high speed vortex to
convert almost any hydrocarbon to usable fuel. Apparently, it works
somewhat like the isotope centrifuges much in the news lately.
So, while we complain about China's virtual embargo presently, necessity
being the mother of invention, new techniques could result in much less
expensive REE in the long term.
Oh, it's interesting to note that REE mining grew exponentially in the 60s
due to the need for europium in color television.
T
