Topic: President Trump declares Rare Earth Element National Emergency

[Libertas]

https://thenewamerican.com/trump-declares-national-emergency-as-china-monopolizes-rare-earth-elements/

Sorely needed.  And in addition to freeing up our mining exploration and extraction...should nationalize the recycling of these materials from cell phones, computers etc...though for privacy concerns a new cottage industry of wiping memory and harddrives ought to be encouraged to aid drop offs...or drop offs of the REE containing components.

[patentlymn]

I read that the metals are not that rare but create lots of waste products in refining and mining so it it cheaper to obtain them from a country that has little environmental enforcement.

[Libertas]

Yes, there are waste issues involved...but these elements are more concentrated in...for lack of a better term...unfriendly areas...with China leading the pack....much like titanium...it's why we use it sparingly in critical stress points for aerospace production whereas Russia can damn near make an entire jet out of the stuff.  And while not rare as in scarcity...they're clumped with other crap...and solvent extraction is tedious and messy...and then additional refinement is needed...and we would likely step up our own mining and processing...but prepare to kick a lot of Eviro-Nazi ass along the way...


USGS

And why I like the idea of extracting what has already been processed in the crap we toss away without thinking...


Scientific American

Much easier and less messy and avoids those Enviro-Nazi pricks, yes?