On Aug 31, 2009, at 9:23 PM, Udhay Shankar N wrote:
Enter California, once upon a time the world’s leading producer of
rare earth metals. Industrialists propose restarting a neglected mine
that is considered the world’s richest concentration of such metals,
which include terbium, dysprosium, yttrium, thulium and lutetium.
In the 1990s, the rare earth metals market was left for dead by the
U.S. extraction industry, as China overproduced the materials, causing
prices to plummet.
But now, with China threatening a trade war of sorts, interest is
gaining in the 55-acre California mine, which is near the town of
Mountain Pass, reports Reuters.
This does not seem to be a "Peak Oil" situation where global resources
are running out so much as it is a complex economic and political
consequence.
The location and deposit structure of the California mine suggests
that it is very unlikely to be the only source of such metals in the
western deserts of the US, but it is equally unlikely that anyone has
really looked. It was originally found a number of decades back by
uranium prospectors who mistakenly thought it was uranium ore, but no
one goes intentionally prospecting for rare earth metals out there.
Most of the many other metal deposits in that region of North America
are coincidental discoveries while prospecting for gold, silver, or
uranium deposits.
Now that the western US deserts are effectively off-limits for new
mining and there is only one existing mine for rare earth metals, it
will probably spur prospecting in places like western South America
and Australia rather than new exploration and development for the
likely US deposits.
J. Andrew Rogers
