231–240 of 341 posts
Not exactly surprising that it’s in Sweden, as many rare earth metals were first discovered here and are named after Swedish things: - Scandium from Scandinavia - Yttrium, Terbium, Erbium and Ytterbium from the village of Ytterby - Holmium from Stockholm - Thulium from Thule
Also, Tungsten.
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> nobody ever had a complaint about gold, silver, platinum or diamond mining In what world? NGOs, academics, journalists, and non-profits have been speaking out about these and the blood diamond industries around them for decades at least > Gold mining is one of the most destructive industries in the world. It can displace communities, contaminate drinking water, hurt workers, and destroy pristine environments https:…
I know there's a "clique" criticizing this. That's not my point, but thanks for trying to balance the needle on its tip. Ask common people and the media about gold, silver and platinum mining, and you'll get a careless shrug on the shoulders in return.
Maybe better announce this after Sweden joins NATO?
> If we look at how other permit processes have worked within our industry, it will be at least 10-15 years... When it takes 15 years simply to get permission to do something, you know that your country will never be competitive globally. Either the benefits outweigh the downsides, or vice versa. A group of 10 of the right experts ought to be able to decide that in a week. Spending 15 years paper-pushing, doing court…
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None of those used in solar panels are lanthanides. Current EVs use some lanthanides in magnets (soon to be displaced, as noted), but not in the batteries. Permanent magnets are used mainly in the smallest wind turbines, where offshore turbines are the biggest.
I see. I didn't realize "rare earth minerals" had a specific chemical definition
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It's important to understand that electrification does not reduce pollution.
Depends on two things 1) what is being electrified - it’s not just about cars and 2) how the power is generated.
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> nobody ever had a complaint about gold, silver, platinum or diamond mining In what world? NGOs, academics, journalists, and non-profits have been speaking out about these and the blood diamond industries around them for decades at least > Gold mining is one of the most destructive industries in the world. It can displace communities, contaminate drinking water, hurt workers, and destroy pristine environments https:…
I know there's a "clique" criticizing this. That's not my point, but thanks for trying to balance the needle on its tip. Ask common people and the media about gold, silver and platinum mining, and you'll get a careless shrug on the shoulders in return.
I really doubt more people are aware/making noise about rare earth minerals as they have been about the impacts of the sort of mining used to get gold, silver, etc
Isn't rare earth metals mining insanely pollutive? I've heard they can be found all over the world but only China mines them massively because nobody else is willing to destroy their ecology.
It certainly depends on the industrial process as a whole. But it's worth pointing out that nobody ever had a complaint about gold, silver, platinum or diamond mining, nor about the unimaginable volumes of ore processed to acquire iron and copper. But somehow these days everyone likes to think that they know that rare earth metals are "the devil".
So why would anyone want a "real" diamond these days? Engagement/wedding ring is just not the same if it's made without spilling some poor African's blood or something?
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> "Rare-earths" are not, incidentally, needed for electric vehicles, wind turbines, or solar panels, however much certain people wish they were, or confidently claim. What exactly does this mean? EVs use a ton more rare earth minerals than conventional cars https://www.iea.org/data-and-statistics/charts/minerals-used... Solar panels use silicon, indium, gallium, selenium, cadmium, and tellurium. Neodymium and dyspros…
The graph you linked shows that this is not true. See the tiny purple graph at the right side of the bar? That's the rare earth minerals and their amount in an electric car is tiny.
0.5kg of neodymium is around $200 and it's probably the cheapest of the rare earths
0.5kg of europium is around $3,750
Obviously lots of variation there, but maybe ratio of how much it costs vs the total cost of all the other minerals is a better metric to use here than pure weight
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It certainly depends on the industrial process as a whole. But it's worth pointing out that nobody ever had a complaint about gold, silver, platinum or diamond mining, nor about the unimaginable volumes of ore processed to acquire iron and copper. But somehow these days everyone likes to think that they know that rare earth metals are "the devil".
Gold, silver, and platinum are largely by products of zinc mining etc in recent decades.
Source: 7,596,400,000 pennies made @ 2.5g each divided by 12.1Mt worldwide zinc production.