Rare Earth Elements: Q and A with Expert Julie Klinger

Rare earth elements, which comprise 17 minerals, are used in many different kinds of digital, transportation, medical, and military technologies. They also play a major role in renewable energy technology like wind turbines and electric car batteries. The expansion of these industries has increased the need for a range of critical components, including REE. However, the extraction of these minerals is causing considerable damage to the environment and to communities around the mining sites.

How essential are rare earth elements? Where are they found and who is mining them? Can recycling reduce demand, or can suitable substitutes be found?

Julie Klinger is the author of Rare Earth Frontiers: From Terrestrial Subsoils to Lunar Landscapes. She is a geographer at the University of Delaware and has done field research on rare earth elements in China, Brazil, and other countries.

John Feffer is director of Foreign Policy In Focus at the Institute for Policy Studies. He is the author, most recently, of Aftershock: A Journey into Eastern Europe’s Broken Dreams (Zed Books).

[AkruthiS]

Could you please provide a transcript for this video. Thanks!

[lamontcole]

Where can I send in a sample for analyzation of rare earth minerals?

[LECOMAYAGUA]

@LECOMAYAGUA
Using a novel geologic model North American Strategic Minerals ( NASM ) has made a big economic discovery on the North American Continent which would make the West independent of China in REE !!!

[PhilipWong]

It's unclear how China is compelling the USA to buy rare earth from China. Imposing a 1000 percent duty on rare earth imports may incentivize domestic mining and processing. This arrangement is a win-win for both nations: the US gains total control over rare earth within its borders and earns extra tax revenues. At the same time, China has fewer resource depletion and environmental issues. However, a 1000 percent duty may not be a sufficient incentive to encourage domestic processing; an initial 2000 percent duty for at least 17 years would be better. Since the production is for the domestic defense industry and that of its allies, there is no prospect of increasing the scale of production to reduce the price to compete with China.

Start using Thorium Molten Salt Reactors to simultaneously make thorium valuable, address climate change issues, and solve the spent nuclear waste problem. The research conducted by West Virginia University and Penn State’s Center for Critical Minerals, focusing on methods to extract and separate rare earth elements and critical minerals from acid mine drainage and coal waste, looks very promising.