Vast reserves of vital rare earths found in ocean bed

Vast reserves of vital rare earths found in ocean bed

www.newscientist.com

They were thought to be in short supply: a recent US Geological Survey estimate put world reserves at 100 million tonnes. But now Yasuhiro Kato of the University of Tokyo, Japan, and his team have found the minerals in such high density that a single square kilometre of ocean floor could provide one-fifth of the current annual world consumption. Two regions near Hawaii and Tahiti might contain as much as 100 billion tonnes.

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Rare earth metals mine is key to US control over hi-tech future

If this becomes a major source of the rare earth metals, this could be a huge discovery! The supply of rare earth metals ( called unobtanium because of the difficulty in finding and mining) is very short. Most are in China, commanding huge prices and causing unbelievable environmental damage to mine and purify.

Every Toyota Prius has 20 lb. of rare earths causing great environmental damage to mine and refine. There are a few additional sources for example in CA but these have not been developed and will have great costs.

If the sea floor turns out to be a reliable and cheap source of rare earths this will be very big.

China rare earth stocks will drop as well as others. The environmental advantages could be huge. Unlimited sources of rare earths could greatly reduce the expense of electronics and of course, hybrid cars and batteries.

www.newscientist.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

oh good. time to rape the earth more.

/sarcasm.

Similar to deep water oil drilling, extracting minerals from beneath the ocean floor at a depth of 6000 meters would prove to be both ultra-expensive and challenging. Not to mention that the requisite mining technology hasn't even been invented yet. Someday it probably will be...then add a decade before this specialized infrastructure is built, in place, and operational. By then, traditional land based companies like Molycorp, Rare Element Resources, Lynas Corp and other early/mid stage REE concessionaires will already be in production - with much lower capital requirements and operating costs. I think the market will suss these fundamentals in a NY minute.

The Japanese 'discovery' is a distant threat at best, at this juncture, more like hollow saber rattling against a backdrop of immediate, ongoing friction between China and Japan over Beijing's REE export quotas.

WTO rules China curbs on raw material exports illegal
Tue Jul 5, 2011

(Reuters) - China broke international law when it curbed exports of coveted raw materials, the World Trade Organization ruled Tuesday, in a landmark case threatening Beijing's defense for similar export brakes on rare earths. - Full Text

reply to post by Bob Sholtz


Today the rare earth mining is in China and the environmental consequences are huge both for the local environment and people in the area:

It doesn't look very green. Rare earth processing in China is a messy, dangerous, polluting business. It uses toxic chemicals, acids, sulfates, ammonia. The workers have little or no protection. But, without rare earth, Copenhagen means nothing. You buy a Prius hybrid car and think you're saving the planet. But each motor contains a kilo of neodymium and each battery more than 10 kilos of lanthanum, rare earth elements from China.

Too Costly?

China meets 95 percent of the world's demand for rare earth, and most of the separation and extraction is done here. So, the pollution stays in China, too.

Any new discovery of rare earths are a potentially good thing for the environment, taking production out of the hands of the Chicoms is a good thing as their record is deplorable!

Thanks for your input, OBE 1!

Originally posted by OBE1
Similar to deep water oil drilling, extracting minerals from beneath the ocean floor at a depth of 6000 meters would prove to be both ultra-expensive and challenging. Not to mention that the requisite mining technology hasn't even been invented yet. Someday it probably will be...then add a decade before this specialized infrastructure is built, in place, and operational. By then, traditional land based companies like Molycorp, Rare Element Resources, Lynas Corp and other early/mid stage REE concessionaires will already be in production - with much lower capital requirements and operating costs. I think the market will suss these fundamentals in a NY minute.

The Japanese 'discovery' is a distant threat at best, at this juncture, more like hollow saber rattling against a backdrop of immediate, ongoing friction between China and Japan over Beijing's REE export quotas.

WTO rules China curbs on raw material exports illegal
Tue Jul 5, 2011

(Reuters) - China broke international law when it curbed exports of coveted raw materials, the World Trade Organization ruled Tuesday, in a landmark case threatening Beijing's defense for similar export brakes on rare earths. - Full Text

edit on 6/7/11 by plumranch because: Forgot to credit OBE1

reply to post by plumranch


So the next time you see a Toyota Prius in front of you or any other Hybrid. Think about the enormous environmental consequences involved in the production of that Hybrid!

How "green" is a car that involves incredible environmental and human costs in another country to produce its battery just so its owner can brag about how little the car is polluting here in the US or Europe and how good the gas mileage is even though the electricy powering the car is produced at a nearby coal or other fossil fuel burning facility?

Many cities give special privileges for hybrid vehicles even though they produce about as much overall pollution as any other vehicle just not locally on this highway, or this bridge! Eg. San Francisco

I love competition but the reason why Chinese do so well in rare earths is because they're the only ones willing to do the dirty work (environmental and human costs) for the highly competitive prices where other countries refuse to do the same.

Let's look at the dense rare earths near Japan's ocean floor, first of all, how are we going to get it? Second, Japan sure as hell won't be refining this on their own land and costs will be high because of the extra-safety precautions that the Japanese is known to take.

This is good news but nothing that is going to put the Chinese out of business. Rare earth mining and refining is dangerous and deadly business (just ask the Chinese that work at the factories and live near them). Next time you want to buy a hybrid, think of the people that die for it to be made, if you must go hybrid, get it used. If not, just try to live under your means.

Originally posted by eLPresidente

Let's look at the dense rare earths near Japan's ocean floor, first of all, how are we going to get it?

Therein lies the rub eLP. From the standpoint of existing technologies, it might be more practical to begin mining REE from the Sea of Tranquility

Is Mining Rare Minerals on the Moon Vital to National Security?

- The seemingly barren moon may actually be a treasure-trove of priceless resources: a potentially bountiful, mineral-rich – yet untapped – cosmic quarry. Still, few see the moon as an alluring mining site, ripe for the picking of rare elements of strategic and national security importance.

- Given all the mineral mischief here on Earth, the moon could become a wellspring of essential resources – but at what quality, quantity and outlay to extract?

- “Yes, we know there are local concentrations of REE on the moon,” Pieters said, referring to rare earth elements by their acronym REE. “We also know from the returned samples that we have not sampled these REE concentrations directly, but can readily detect them along a mixing line with many of the samples we do have.” - Full Text

Not to worry. The Mountain Pass concession is scheduled to be fully operational by the end 2011, and by 2014 Molycorp hopes to be producing enough low cost 'light' REE tonnage to satisfy US domestic demand...with an annual surplus. Substantial 'heavy' REE deposits are currently being defined in Alaska and Canada. A couple of these exploration stage projects are tentatively scheduled to enter production by 2015/2016.

reply to post by Bob Sholtz


Lets drain that sucker..... and dig that stuff up.....eh

reply to post by OBE1


Stared.. But..

From the same Wiki source: Mountain Pass environmental history...

In 1998, chemical processing at the mine was stopped after a series of wastewater leaks. Hundreds of thousands of gallons of water carrying radioactive waste spilled into and around Ivanpah Dry Lake.[7] In the 1980s, the company began piping wastewater as far as 14 miles to evaporation ponds on or near Ivanpah Dry Lake, east of Interstate 15 near Nevada. This pipeline repeatedly ruptured during cleaning operations to remove mineral deposits called scale. The scale is radioactive because of the presence of thorium and radium, which occur naturally in the rare earth ore. A federal investigation later found that some 60 spills—some unreported—occurred between 1984 and 1998, when the pipeline was shut down. In all, about 600,000 gallons of radioactive and other hazardous waste flowed onto the desert floor, according to federal authorities. By the end of the 1990s, Unocal was served with a cleanup order and a San Bernardino County district attorney's lawsuit. The company paid more than $1.4 million in fines and settlements. After preparing a cleanup plan and completing an extensive environmental study, Unocal in 2004 won approval of a county permit that allowed the mine to operate for another 30 years. The mine also passed a key county inspection in 2007.[5]

Current plans are for full mining operations to resume by the second half of 2011 as a result of increased demand for rare earth metals.[16] In December 2010, Molycorp announced that it secured all the environmental permits needed to begin construction of a new ore processing plant at the mine; construction will begin in January 2011, and is expected to be completed by the end of 2012.[17]

So don't hold your breath. The Chicoms are the 95% world class "unobtainum" producers for the forseeable future.