Just do a google search for rare earth mining radioactivity and you'll find about half a million articles covering the problem.
THORIUM is also found with its products so sometimes there's "radioactivity", and though small, there are some real limits on mining it easily, handling it, and processing it.
You can't just take thorium out and dump it in a ditch somewhere!
Uh, thorium is not exactly a waste product because we have available to us processes that can use it as a source of radioactivity to produce energy.
Frankly, when I sit down for breakfast in the morning and cut that egg in two I don't want it glowing back at me eh! Best to keep the rare earth mining materials segregated from EVERYTHING ELSE ~ I'm picky that way, but I bet the miners are too. Of course, with them, it's more personal. They don't want their fingers glowing green in the dark!
I believe there is a proposed reactor design that utilizes thorium. I’ll try to hunt that down for you.
In fact, I believe N-reactors can be used to produce rare-earth elements.
I grind on 2% thoriated TIG welding electrodes all the time.
Nothing glows. I make it a point to not inhale the dust, but plenty of TIG welders all over the US are exposed to thorium every day. 2% Thoriated tungsten electrodes are, without doubt, the most common TIG welding electrode out there. Have been for years and years and years. Ain’t no one glowing.
I also work on old radios. The tungsten filaments in old vacuum tubes were thoriated as well. It improved electron emission from the cathode. Never had a problem there either.
My point is, thorium has been used for decades in industry, and in applications where it could even be aerosolized (eg, grinding TIG electrodes)- and yet we’re just not hearing much of any problems about it.
You have to exercise care with any heavy metal mining. Heck, even base metal mining can create a mess. We have long had the technology to do it properly.