We usually think of mining as bad for the environment, but in this case, the situation is more complex.
The US imports 100% of the quartz crystal needed for PV panels used to generate solar energy, 91% of the platinum for fuel cells, 100% of the indium for LED lighting technologies, and 100% of the rare earth minerals for advanced batteries.
As Craig Canine, author of the article below says, "The US and other developed countries risk trading their addiction to oil for a new form of energy dependence." Rather than depending on the Mid East, we could rely on China, which is the OPEC of rare earth minerals.
In each Administration, the antiquated Mining Law of 1872 comes under review, as it is now in the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy & Natural Resources. Congress enacted the law after the Gold Rush, and gave the land and its minerals away for free to encourage settlement of the American West. In 1920, Congress passed the Mineral Leasing Act, which required corporations to lease the land and pay royalties on for oil, gas, coal and certain other minerals - providing a financial return to the public for the production of publicly-owned resources.
Now, the Senate Energy Committee is considering two bills, S. 796 and S. 140, which would finally reform the Mining Law, which still governs mining of hardrock minerals such as gold, silver and copper from federal lands. For all these years, mining companies have been leasing mineralized Federal lands for as little as $2.50 or $5.00 per acre without paying royalties. There are also no specific environmental provisions in the law.
"S. 140, introduced by Senator Feinstein (D-CA), would require royalty and reclamation fees for hardrock mineral production, as would also address abandoned hardrock mine reclamation. There could be as many as 500,000 abandoned hardrock mine sites in the US, mostly in the West.
Renewing Our Dependence
by Craig Canine
Interstate 15 as it crosses the Mojave Desert between Los Angeles and Las Vegas is one of the most remote and desolate stretches of superhighway in the United States. Here and there, a roadside oddity -- like the world's tallest thermometer in Baker, California -- punctuates the endless sagebrush and sere mountain landscapes. Yet the most unusual landmark does not appear on any tourist map.
About 15 miles south of the Nevada border lies the tiny town of Mountain Pass, California, where a cluster of low buildings and industrial equipment hints at the existence, just over a low ridge, of a gaping open-pit mine roughly a quarter-mile across and 500 feet deep. For decades after it opened in the early 1950s, this was the world's premier source of the metals known as rare earths -- a group of 17 elements with exotic-sounding names like lanthanum, neodymium, yttrium, and erbium.
But the mine shut down in 2002, a casualty of environmental violations and plunging global prices. Today, this eerily quiet hole in the Mojave is the world's largest symbol of a brewing crisis, as the US and other developed countries risk trading their addiction to oil for a new form of energy dependence.
Rare earths are essential ingredients in a host of high-tech gadgets, including automotive catalytic converters, air-bag sensors, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machines, and precision-guided missiles. Although they are produced and used in tiny quantities, rare earths and a few other obscure metals such as indium and gallium are also essential ingredients in virtually every sustainable energy technology.
Lanthanum, for example, is required to make nickel metal hydride (NiMH) batteries, which are used in hybrid cars. Energy-efficient fluorescent light bulbs contain small amounts of both yttrium and europium. "Super magnets" made with neodymium form the heart of compact but powerful motors and generators like those used in wind turbines, today's hybrid cars, and tomorrow's plug-in electric vehicles.
