Tag: rare earths

Elk Creek, Nebraska, rare earths, niobium

…what am I doing with that title? I’m keywording for the benefit of future researchers for the Bureau of the Interior who will need to look up this story about how the town of Elk Creek, Nebraska may be sitting on top of what may be an incredibly valuable (and incredibly strategic) deposit of rare earths, including niobium.  Short version: a lot of our favorite technological toys require a bunch of extremely rare elements, and unfortunately the luck of the draw of where they’re located hasn’t been all that great from our point of view.  So if it’s true that this Nebraska site is real and exploitable (the citizens of Elk Creek, by the way, ARE ALL FOR BEING EXPLOITED, assuming of course that they get their cut), having a source for these elements that isn’t under the firm control of the People’s Republic of China (or even Brazil) will be all to the good.

However, obviously any development along these lines will have to wait until the current administration leaves office, given that Barack Obama’s general attitude towards mineral and resource exploitation is to require that it be done by foreign entities and on foreign soil whenever possible*. Hence, the need for keywords as the title: I assume that this is going to be a bit of an action item in January 2013…

Moe Lane (crossspost) Continue reading Elk Creek, Nebraska, rare earths, niobium

Greentech hurts poor people, pollutes land.

Business as usual, in other words. Remember, it doesn’t count if it’s not impacting the First World:

Some of the greenest technologies of the age, from electric cars to efficient light bulbs to very large wind turbines, are made possible by an unusual group of elements called rare earths. The world’s dependence on these substances is rising fast.

Just one problem: These elements come almost entirely from China, from some of the most environmentally damaging mines in the country, in an industry dominated by criminal gangs.

That’s actually three problems, all of which are more or less independent of each other. Fixing any one of the three wouldn’t solve the other two, although fixing at least one probably certainly wouldn’t hurt; but, for example, the mines will still be ecological menaces even absent the criminal elements and single-source production.  All in all, chalk up another win for the Law of Unintended Consequences, although Law of Unconsidered Consequences may be more accurate here.  After all, a little bit of research beforehand would have easily warned would-be innovators that there would be road bumps on this particular road to Shangri-La.

Whether they would have cared is another question, of course…

Moe Lane

PS: This may be the best bit from the article:

“This industry wants to save the world,” said Nicholas Curtis, the executive chairman of the Lynas Corporation of Australia, in a speech to an industry gathering in Hong Kong in late November. “We can’t do it and leave a product that is glowing in the dark somewhere else, killing people.”

Actually, it’s much more accurate to say that’s what they’re doing now, only without the ‘saving the world’ part; they’re just being uncomfortable at being caught at it.

Crossposted to RedState.