Rare Earth on the Mid Pacific floor.

[The Grand Nudger]

Great little news blurb here, for anyone who may have missed it.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/07/04/...r_pacific/

I, like the author, love the concept but am unsure of its ability to be a source of these materials. Not exactly low hanging fruit.

[Anymouse]

Great little news blurb here, for anyone who may have missed it.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/07/04/...r_pacific/

I, like the author, love the concept but am unsure of its ability to be a source of these materials. Not exactly low hanging fruit.

And the method that they propose using to extract them is strikingly similar to the method used to extract gold from low-grade ore in Summitville, Colo. ( http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Summitville_mine )

After our marriage in the Colorado mountains, my wife and I went up to the EPA cleanup site of the Summitville Mine. Thinking some group might do that to the whole Pacific Ocean is scary.

[The Grand Nudger]

Guess we might have to add the cost of cleanup to the total cost of extraction eh?

[Anomalocaris]

Great little news blurb here, for anyone who may have missed it.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/07/04/...r_pacific/

I, like the author, love the concept but am unsure of its ability to be a source of these materials. Not exactly low hanging fruit.

And the method that they propose using to extract them is strikingly similar to the method used to extract gold from low-grade ore in Summitville, Colo. ( http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Summitville_mine )

After our marriage in the Colorado mountains, my wife and I went up to the EPA cleanup site of the Summitville Mine. Thinking some group might do that to the whole Pacific Ocean is scary.

The total quantity of rare earth metal ores required by the world is actually fairly small (in the order of tens of thousands of tons a year rather than millions of tons). If the quantity present in sediment is confirmed, only a very small area, say a few square kilometers, needs to be mined to supply the world's demand.

---

Guess we might have to add the cost of cleanup to the total cost of extraction eh?

The dirty part of rare earth processing deals mainly with the process of extraction of the metal from the ore, which is the same whether it's on land or at sea.

The process of scouping up large amount of ore containing mud from seafloor may cause other forms of contamination, such as releasing large volume of silt into the water or stir up products of biological decay, but it does not release material into the sea that's not already there.

[The Grand Nudger]

Roger that. There may be a point where extracting this stuff, from this location, is a no brainer. I think the author was simply expressing his opinion that now may not be that time.

[downbeatplumb]

There are 600 billion tons of these 'rare earth metals' how much do they need for it not to be rare?

[Anomalocaris]

There are 600 billion tons of these 'rare earth metals' how much do they need for it not to be rare?

There is nothing rare about rare earth metals. it's a misnomer. The only thing limiting supplies is they tend to be either costly, or dirty to extract. The chinese accepted the dirty route, as a result, they more or less became the world's only supplier. The Japanese are freaking out because the Chinese embargoed the Japanese over a territorial dispute, and the Japanese suddenly discovered the Chinese can shutdown most of Japanese electronics industry by denying them raw material and the Japanese have nowhere else to turn for the stuff, hence the interest in pulling the stuff off of the sea floor.

[Autumnlicious]

There is nothing rare about rare earth metals. it's a misnomer. The only thing limiting supplies is they tend to be either costly, or dirty to extract. The chinese accepted the dirty route, as a result, they more or less became the world's only supplier. The Japanese are freaking out because the Chinese embargoed the Japanese over a territorial dispute, and the Japanese suddenly discovered the Chinese can shutdown most of Japanese electronics industry by denying them raw material and the Japanese have nowhere else to turn for the stuff, hence the interest in pulling the stuff off of the sea floor.

Which is moronic given the existence of plenty of rare earths mines all over the world, where the environmental impact and methodologies are well established, as opposed to mining shit from the oceans...

The again, this is the Japanese were talking about -- the same fuckers who insist they do whale hunting for 'scientific reasons' while dumping the meat on the market. Double talk all the way.

[Anomalocaris]

There is nothing rare about rare earth metals. it's a misnomer. The only thing limiting supplies is they tend to be either costly, or dirty to extract. The chinese accepted the dirty route, as a result, they more or less became the world's only supplier. The Japanese are freaking out because the Chinese embargoed the Japanese over a territorial dispute, and the Japanese suddenly discovered the Chinese can shutdown most of Japanese electronics industry by denying them raw material and the Japanese have nowhere else to turn for the stuff, hence the interest in pulling the stuff off of the sea floor.

Which is moronic given the existence of plenty of rare earths mines all over the world, where the environmental impact and methodologies are well established, as opposed to mining shit from the oceans...

The again, this is the Japanese were talking about -- the same fuckers who insist they do whale hunting for 'scientific reasons' while dumping the meat on the market. Double talk all the way.

The only methodology that's been established around the world is to shut the mines down and buy the stuff from the Chinese. Japan has negligible reserve of it's own. So it wants a means to obtain it's own independent supply.

Regarding whales, I find the conceit that one culture's sentimental, posturing attachment must become all other cultures' inviolable dictate substantially more offensive than japan killing a moderate number of whales under false pretenses. The SeaShepard crowd is about as disgusting as those who eat cows in their own countries but wants to outlaw the eating of dogs in other countries merely because they've anthropomorphized their own fido with spa treatments and paw manicures.

[The Grand Nudger]

Chuck has a point re whales/dogs, whatever.