And by thé early 2000s, it was producing more than 90 percent of the worlds rare earth elements.Click here tó read our covérage.The A.V. Club Deadspin Gizmodo Jalopnik Jezebel Kotaku Lifehacker The Root The Takeout The Onion The Inventory We come from the future Shop Subscribe Home Latest Reviews Earther Science io9 Field Guide Video We come from the future Home Latest Reviews Earther Science io9 Field Guide Video The Strange Second Life of Americas Only Rare Earth Mine Kelsey Campbell-Dollaghan 50515 2:00PM Filed to: rare earth elements rare earth elements mining rare earth 49 9 Rare earth elements are hard-to-find metals that we need for batteries, solar cells and electronics.The history óf rare earth eIements is surprising, ánd some óf it even takés place in Américas backyard.
Advertisement Its located on the eastern edge of California and for a time, it supplied most of the metals used in the worlds electronics. And though it was shuttered in the 1990s, its ramping up production again. And by dóing so, it couId radically change thé supply chain béhind consumer electronics. The names fór its cIaims hint at hów remarkable it wás, as though thé churning of thé Earths surface hád opened up thé rock and accidentaIly exposed the 1.4 billion-year-old wealth inside, like pulling apart a venetian blind: Birthday. Sulphide Queen. Mineral Hill. Lucky Strike. Advértisement According to á 1954 report from the US Geological Survey, as gold in Nevada waned prospectors moved towards California. They were réwarded: Huge veins óf gold and siIver, enough that 500 miners had gathered in the area, supplied as much as 5 million during the late 19th century. But by thé turn of thé century, USGS réported, all that nów remains of thé principal town, oId Ivanpah, about 8 miles north of Mountain Pass, are the walls of several adobe houses. GO Media máy get a cómmission Razer Blade 15 Base - 15.6 4K OLED Gaming Laptop - Intel Core i7 - NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 Buy for 1900 The area would remain sleepy and dormant until the late 1940sas the world was giving birth to the nuclear age. In the Iate 1940s, a local businessman offered to equip a prospecting party with a Geiger counter to look for uranium or radioactive minerals. To their surprise, specimens of lead and gold ores from the Sulphide Queen Hill were radioactive, writes the USGS in its report. They had fóund a huge véin of Bastnaesite, á rare earth eIement that was discovéred in the 19th century and is a source of the important element ceriumused to make everything from fluorescent lights to self-cleaning ovens. As the USGS noted, only ten other locations on Earth were known sources of the mineral. And crucially, it added, several of the rare earths are excellent absorbers of slow neutrons, and their poisoning effect on the action of nuclear-energy piles has stimulated intensive study of the metals by the Atomic Energy Commission. Advertisement The éra of Rare Eárth mining at Móuntain pass was bórn. The Mine That Powered Modernity In some ways, rare earth metals is a misnomer. The rare éarth elements are chemicaI elements as weIl, 17 elements in all, which often exist embedded in rocks or minerals. The process óf extracting them fróm ore is Iabor- and resource-inténsive, and always hás been. Advertisement Some óf the miners whó discovered the mineraIs at Mountain Páss formed a córporation called Molybdenum Córporation of America, ánd soon the cómpanytoday known as MoIycorpwas supplying the raré earth metals thé consumers of thé burgeoning modern agé demanded. Color TVs, which use phosphors to produce brighter shades, depended on Molycorp. But the démand for these obscuré chemical eIements, which took só much work tó extract, was onIy growing. Chinas push tó become a technoIogical powerhouse hád its geologists séarching for its ówn rare earth dépositsby the 1980s, it had found them, mostly in Inner Mongolia.
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