Hugh Bollinger / Monday, July 4, 2011

Rare earths revealed

If you own a cell phone, laptop computer, hybrid car, or virtually any other digitally controlled device, you own some rare earth metals as well. Strange elements like scandium, yttrium, lanthanum, neodymium, and dysprosium are ingredients in all these products. The name dysprosium-- from the Greek "dysprositos" meaning "hard to get" --says it all. I use a cell phone, work a good deal on a computer, and could probably find a use for a hybrid car so I'm a culprit in the mining of these rare and incredibly important minerals. [caption id="attachment_5172" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="Rare earth metals source: Associated Press"]

[/caption] Rare earths largely occur in developing nations and their extraction creates major environmental and social problems. They have been implicated in extensive deforestation in Congo rainforests and corrupt land seizures in China. The global demand for the metals is growing exponentially. [caption id="attachment_5183" align="aligncenter" width="420" caption="Congo rare earth mining source: Sydney Morning Herald"]

[/caption] The BBC has now reported that a massive find of rare earth minerals has been discovered by Japanese geologists deep in the Pacific Ocean off of Hawaii. It still needs to be determining if the deep sediments, containing the minerals, can be economically extracted. If past extraction results had included the environmental consequences in their accounting analysis, the price of the minerals might have revealed their true costs. Recycling of existing e-waste for their rare earth components might not solve the demand problem but it's a start. WHB

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Tags: marine conservation BBC cell phones digital devices e-waste environmental polution rare earth metals recycling

Rare earths revealed

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