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
