The New Gold Rush Fueled by Cell Phones and TVs

Did you know that the color pictures for cell phones and TVs are produced by rare earth elements  such as praseodymium, cerium and lanthanum? They also make magnets lighter, balance the colors of fluorescent lights and add to wind turbines and the regenerative brakes of hybrid cars. Here’s the reason they have not been mined in the US, where they are prevalent, especially at former gold and silver mine sites.

"The reason they haven't been explored for in the U.S. was because as long as China was prepared to export enough rare earths to fill the demand, everything was fine — like with the oil cartels. When China began to use them as a political tool, people began to see the vulnerability to the U.S. economy to having one source of rare earth elements," said Ian Ridley, director of the USGS Central Mineral and Environmental Resources Science Center in Colorado.     Two years ago, China raised prices — in the case of Neodymium, used to make Prius electric motors stronger and lighter, from $15 a kilogram in 2009 to $500 in 2011, while Dysprosium oxide used in lasers and halide lamps went from $114 a kilogram in 2010 to $2,830 in 2011. It's also about the time China cut off supplies to Japan, maker of the Prius, in a dispute over international fishing territory.     To read the original of this article click here.

With these elements so valuable and necessary, the good news is that they are available in the US and perhaps other places as well. This will provide new jobs and stop the monopoly China has enjoyed. It seems ironic that the new miners will be going through the tailings of old mines for rocks the original miners discarded. As the saying goes, one person's waste is another person’s treasure. I would also like to see some of these electronic machines recycled as well in a safe, environmentally way. Perhaps some of these rare elements could also be recycled. This is a picture of rare earth oxides.