Rare Earth mining - The price of modern day tech

[packman]

In the image above, captured by NASA’s Terra satellite in June 2006, we see some deep scars in the desert—the result of nearly sixty years of mining. The area imaged lies in the west of Inner Mongolia, which is, despite its name, a part of China.


...These mines produce rare earth, a group of 17 elements that are vital to many modern technologies and devices that people use every day such as smartphones, laptops, cameras, rechargeable batteries, electric and hybrid vehicles, televisions, and so on. Rare earths are used as catalysts, phosphors, and as polishing compounds. They are used in night-vision goggles, precision-guided weapons, communications equipment, GPS equipment, lasers, and radar and sonar systems. Rare earth elements have unusual magnetic and electrical properties that help us build stuff that are smaller, faster, lighter and stronger. One notable example is the neodymium magnet. Anybody who has handled a neodymium (a rare earth element) magnet knows how strong these magnets are compared to ferrite magnets, despite their small size. Without neodymium magnets, you can’t have spindle motors on hard drives, vibrators on your smartphones and the tiny speakers in your headphones. Rare earth elements are not needed in large quantities, but they are an essential constituent, like “spices or vitamins” as Elisabeth Berry Drago of Science History Institute puts it

Article goes on to the devastation such mining inflicts on the land.

https://www.amusingplanet.com/2019/10/bayan-obo-chinese-mine-that-makes-all.html

[2naSalit]

1. K&R

[IcyPeas]

2. 60 Minutes covered this a few months ago

This piece is similar to the article you posted. They do a good job of explaining it. U.S. let China buy the market right out from under us. Now the U.S. is dependent on China for these important minerals which are needed in all modern tech including cars, MRI machines, cellphones, weaponry, etc. oh, and Magnets!

It's a very interesting 13 minutes.

[abqtommy]

3. I'm beginning to think that advances in technology are not friendly to the earth or its people.