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A major rare earth mine has been fixed up and is ready to reopen in 2011.

Do the folks who keep reading these alarming news articles ever do some research into what it takes to mine this stuff and why there are "difficulties"?

I'm just guessing it's the Chicoms involved part that interests them, not the rare earth business at all.

For the uninitiated rare earths are mostly the residue left behind when radio active thorium breaks down.

There can be, and often is, radioactive residue in the vicinity of mineable rare earths.

You have to DO STUFF to make mining rare earths safe for the miners ~ and the managers too. No crispy critters for them ~ oh no sir ee ~ no crispy critters.

Do the folks who keep reading these alarming news articles ever do some research into what it takes to mine this stuff and why there are "difficulties"?

Do the people who point to "technical problems" ever do some research to see why they are overblown? Could it be that there are VERY well connected American "investors" in Chinese rare earth mines?

From the article:

Ed White, who owns a family mining business in the area is one of many whose business will now be destroyed. "The Sierra Club was just used, in my opinion, by Feinstein's bankers friends and the railroad or their land company Catellus, to create the public perception that these lands are fragile and threatened by development," said White.

"The truth appears to be just the opposite. The scattered railroad lands that could never be developed are to be consolidated into a single block of 226,000 acres so they can be developed.

JMB Realty stands to make a huge profit on this development. In the name of "rewilding" millions of acres of desert, grave financial and environmental damage will occur once the land is closed to the public.

Ninety-seven the U.S. rare earth mineral production comes from the California desert. These minerals are used in high technology and are essential to the production of lasers, high-power magnets, super conductivity and pollution free cars. The United States will now be forced to obtain these minerals from foreign mineral cartels.

Which mine are your referring to, any in the US?

“The first mine on stream is likely to be Mount Wells in Australia that is operated by Lynas Corporation and it should be on stream later in 2011, following that, Molycorp in the United States which was the only producing mine in the US for a lot of years before it was shut down somewhere around the year 2000, should be on stream likely in 2012. Great Western Minerals - my company - will have a small deposit coming on stream late 2012-early 2013 and Arafura operating Nolan’s Bore in Australia is likely to come on stream in 2013 as well. Those are the main projects that in all likelihood will be on in the next three or four years.”

http://www.mineweb.com/mineweb/view/mineweb/en/page96985?oid=112632&sn=2010+Detail&pid=102055

So are you saying we shouldn't even mine it? What about fossil fuels,they do have their drilling and mining problems? And atomic power can be problematic as well?Plastics and electronics can produce byproducts, hell, people just living and eating can be detrimental to the environment, as evidenced by those sufffering from the plethera of dieseases gained from eating or drinking in some of the less than savory parts of the world?

Point is that if we are to have a technological world, we need to develop the technologies to both accomplish the great feats and mitigate the negative side effects. The studies show that wealthy countries are the best equipped to solve the issues that arise from our actions. Crippling our economy won`t help our ability to solve problems, it`ll only serve the interests of the tyrants wannabes.

We shouldn`t have to remind a Conservative of that.