There's a mine in Mountain Pass, California that holds the world's richest proven reserve of rare earth metals. These rare earth metals are essential components to many of the greenest technologies out there, like the Toyota Prius, other hybrid vehicles and the generators in wind turbines. The Mountain Pass mine has remained inactive for quite a while, but one company, Molycorp Minerals, LLC, is planning on reopening the mine to continue extracting rare earth metals and they want to help the United States to surpass China in rare earth metal extraction. In 2008, China produced about 139,000 tons of refined rare earth metals, which accounted for about 97% of the global supply.
The interesting thing is that rare earth metals have no real alternative when it comes to green technology. The problem, however, is that mining is a notoriously bad endeavor when it comes to the environment. However, given the fact that green alternatives must continue to grow, it looks like mining rare earth metals from Mountain Pass is the only answer. Every Toyota Prius needs about 2 pounds of neodymium, a rare earth metal that is an essential component to the permanent magnets in the Prius. Prius batteries also use about 30 pounds of lanthanum, another rare earth metal. There are 15 rare earth metals, and they've been dubbed the "green elements", since they are essential to green technologies.
These green elements are being called "clean energy's dirty little secret" because the future boom of green technologies like hybrid vehicles and wind turbines depends on mining these rare earth metals or green elements. Even though China is producing a huge amount of refined rare earth metals, they aren't sharing it. Irving Mintzer, who is a senior adviser to the Potomac Energy Fund, is worried about what will happen if Americans don't start producing a huge amount of rare earth metals.
Molycorp Minerals, LLC is making some effort to make the rare earth metal mining more environmentally friendly. They are using a complex contraption with interlocked, 18-sided plastic balls that float on standing wastewater pools to limit evaporation and prevent salts from building up when the mine is no longer active. They will willingly be paying $2.4 million every year for environmental monitoring and compliance, which will drive up the cost of the entire operation and the final costs as a result. It looks as though Molycorp Minerals, LLC is going to begin mining soon. They plan to be very efficient and they will be sure to adhere to some environmental standards, largely due to political pressure and a public demand for clean operations. Regardless of the motivation, EnviroCitizen.org is glad that Molycorp Minerals, LLC is taking these measures. |
