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PaloLV t1_j43ragt wrote

What most people don't realize is that rare earth metals aren't rare. The only difficulty and problem with producing them is the incredibly dirty refining process. There are huge deposits all over the world but we've let China take the market lead in production by letting them pollute their land rather than ours.

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ZeenTex t1_j44od2v wrote

Yup, many of these deposits all over the world.

Refining can be done properly without hurting the environment too much but that costs money of course.

China skipped that step and so can do it cheap than the rest, plus cheap labour helps too. So they pretty much cornered the market and then decided to limit certain exports.

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Erisagi t1_j44q0s7 wrote

So what does that mean for this news? Is this resource meaningful only if Sweden decides to pollute their land?

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PaloLV t1_j44x2hq wrote

It means unless Sweden is willing to spend a ton of money to make it less damaging to the environment they will pollute the heck out of their land. If they choose to spend that money they won't be able to produce at anywhere close to competitive prices.

Unless they want to make a strategic decision to subsidize the industry to not be helpless to the whims of China it doesn't make economic sense to develop it. The U.S. is considering just that since our military and high tech industry requires large quantities of rare earths.

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Erisagi t1_j44yd3b wrote

The United States appears to have greater resources and incentives to develop this industry. Perhaps Sweden and our allies would prefer to rely on us. However, I wonder what sort of production capacity the United States would aim to achieve considering how it creates much pollution.

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Fredthefree t1_j474tyz wrote

Yup, a lot of products use iron oxide(rust) and it's derivatives. To produce it in the U.S. you need do inside in a facility, contain the chemical run off, and can only produce a maximum amount per EPA regulations. In China, they just spray the metal outdoors and let the chemicals leech into the ground.

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