WEBVTT - Why are rare Earth metals important? 0:00:00.280 --> 0:00:02.840 Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. 0:00:03.160 --> 0:00:08.920 It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology with 0:00:09.039 --> 0:00:17.800 tech Stuff from how stuff works dot com. Hello again, everyone, 0:00:17.880 --> 0:00:20.119 Welcome to tech stuff. My name is Chris Poulette and 0:00:20.160 --> 0:00:22.040 I am one of the editors here at how stuff 0:00:22.040 --> 0:00:24.840 works dot Com. Sitting across from me, as usual, is 0:00:24.840 --> 0:00:28.400 senior writer Jonathan Strickland. They say that the best weapon 0:00:28.960 --> 0:00:32.880 is the one you never have to fire. I respectfully disagree. 0:00:33.400 --> 0:00:36.599 I prefer the weapon you only have to fire once. 0:00:37.080 --> 0:00:39.760 That's how Dad did it, and so America does it, 0:00:40.200 --> 0:00:44.400 and it's worked out pretty well so far. Nice. Thank you. 0:00:45.720 --> 0:00:48.559 Today we're going to talk about rare earth metals and 0:00:48.680 --> 0:00:53.360 why they're important in electronics. Yes, this is actually sort 0:00:53.360 --> 0:00:55.560 of a weird topic for us. It's sort of a 0:00:55.680 --> 0:01:01.840 science e thing, but it's kind of a stuff. Yeah up, Um, 0:01:01.840 --> 0:01:05.240 but it's certainly uh, certainly something that's uh sort of 0:01:05.240 --> 0:01:09.200 a misnomer about rare earth metals. Yeah, yeah, it's. Um, 0:01:09.240 --> 0:01:11.200 that's one of the things you need to understand first. 0:01:12.600 --> 0:01:15.440 Do you want to go into that. Why it's a misnomer? Well, 0:01:16.400 --> 0:01:19.280 it sounds like a joke. They're neither rare nor are 0:01:19.319 --> 0:01:23.199 they an Earth all the And you know, some people 0:01:23.240 --> 0:01:25.600 call them elements, but I think it's fair fairly safe 0:01:25.600 --> 0:01:31.120 to call them metals. Yeah. A Swedish Army lieutenant discovered 0:01:31.319 --> 0:01:37.839 the these medals back in seventeen seven and gave them 0:01:38.080 --> 0:01:42.679 the the the categorical name of rare earth metals because 0:01:42.920 --> 0:01:46.520 at that point they were very rarely seen. And it 0:01:46.520 --> 0:01:49.240 turns out it's not because there's very little of it 0:01:49.320 --> 0:01:52.840 on Earth. It's just that they tend to be um 0:01:53.080 --> 0:01:55.400 mixed in with lots of other stuff, and you don't 0:01:55.480 --> 0:01:56.960 tend to find a whole bunch of it in a 0:01:57.000 --> 0:01:59.920 big quantity all in one spot. You find tend to 0:02:00.000 --> 0:02:03.080 and little bits of it spread out over a huge area. 0:02:04.440 --> 0:02:06.640 And if you wonder where the earth part comes from, 0:02:06.960 --> 0:02:08.920 I did too, Actually I looked it up in in 0:02:08.960 --> 0:02:13.799 Britannica and apparently this comes from the Greeks. And they 0:02:13.800 --> 0:02:18.399 would define an earth as something that, uh, you could 0:02:18.440 --> 0:02:20.840 heat up as much as they could heat something up 0:02:20.840 --> 0:02:22.720 with the technology they had available to them, and it 0:02:22.720 --> 0:02:27.000 wouldn't change significantly. Um, And it's not, I mean technically, 0:02:27.120 --> 0:02:30.480 once you've with the with the technology we have available 0:02:30.480 --> 0:02:33.960 to us, when you run into these oxides. Uh, with 0:02:34.080 --> 0:02:37.919 these rare earth elements in them, you can in fact 0:02:38.120 --> 0:02:42.640 break them down into individual elements. UM. So they're technically 0:02:42.680 --> 0:02:45.000 not an Earth as described by that, but you know, 0:02:45.120 --> 0:02:47.440 maybe maybe to the Greeks they would have been. I'm 0:02:47.480 --> 0:02:50.280 sure of that time. And let me give you a 0:02:50.360 --> 0:02:53.440 short list of some of the rare earth metals. They're 0:02:53.440 --> 0:02:59.079 technically seventeen of them, yes they are. There's a gallium, indium, selenium, 0:02:59.200 --> 0:03:07.359 to lurium, silicon, zinc, vanadium, lithium, platinum, neo, neodymium. Actually 0:03:07.400 --> 0:03:09.240 some of these technically don't fall into the rare earth 0:03:09.600 --> 0:03:13.480 metals either, like platinum, but they they're rare and they're 0:03:13.560 --> 0:03:24.519 using electronics, so they often get lumped together with them. Cobalt, manganese, syrium, europium, dysphorium, terbium, scandium, scandium. 0:03:24.560 --> 0:03:27.720 I didn't have that one, Scandium and atrium. I wonder 0:03:27.720 --> 0:03:29.360 if you pronounce the I or if it's like pronounced 0:03:29.400 --> 0:03:31.760 like an eye. I've never heard anyone say it. And 0:03:31.800 --> 0:03:35.160 the lanthanoids, which is the which are the elements with 0:03:35.200 --> 0:03:37.640 atomic numbers fifty seven through seventy one. Those are those 0:03:37.640 --> 0:03:41.160 are technically the rare earth metals. They tend to be 0:03:41.200 --> 0:03:45.720 heavy elements. Um, they and they're used for different things. 0:03:45.760 --> 0:03:47.680 I mean a lot of these are used in order 0:03:47.720 --> 0:03:52.040 to make magnets. Yes, I'm sorry you were about that. 0:03:52.080 --> 0:03:55.400 Let's well, we're just gonna add another tiny historical tid bits. 0:03:55.800 --> 0:03:58.200 And I think I think it's kind of interesting. People 0:03:58.240 --> 0:04:01.360 pretty much ignored them up until about mid last century. 0:04:01.440 --> 0:04:03.840 I mean, they really weren't there. They weren't particularly useful 0:04:03.880 --> 0:04:06.160 for anything, and it was really hard to get enough 0:04:06.200 --> 0:04:08.240 of them to do anything with them in the first place. 0:04:08.560 --> 0:04:12.280 But they do make Jonathan pointing out very good permanent magnets. Yeah, 0:04:12.360 --> 0:04:16.560 that's an important element in lots of electronics. Yeah, I didn't. 0:04:16.640 --> 0:04:19.320 It's gonna happen that way. It's gonna happen all the time. Yeah. 0:04:19.320 --> 0:04:23.000 So anyway, like, um, like, let's say your earbuds for 0:04:23.560 --> 0:04:26.839 an MP three player, Uh, part of the speaker is 0:04:26.880 --> 0:04:30.479 a tiny little magnet actually for not necessarily tiny, but 0:04:30.600 --> 0:04:33.400 with earbuds, they're definitely tiny. So you have to have 0:04:33.440 --> 0:04:35.880 a permanent magnet as part of the speaker system in 0:04:35.880 --> 0:04:40.000 these earbuds. Well, obviously you want a permanent magnet that's 0:04:40.040 --> 0:04:43.960 going to be powerful yet light. You don't want to have, 0:04:44.160 --> 0:04:47.920 you know, this incredibly heavy device. I mean it is 0:04:48.000 --> 0:04:52.159 stuck inside your ear. It's not um, it's not really comfortable, 0:04:52.240 --> 0:04:55.360 let's say, right, So you want to have some sort 0:04:55.480 --> 0:04:58.520 of material that's light and yet is able to have 0:04:58.560 --> 0:05:02.120 a permanent magnetic chart and a lot of these medals 0:05:02.600 --> 0:05:04.400 fall into that category. And in fact, that's what a 0:05:04.440 --> 0:05:06.840 lot of them are used for. And uh, but not 0:05:07.000 --> 0:05:11.159 just speakers. I mean, that's just one example that that's correct. 0:05:11.200 --> 0:05:13.640 I was going to add that. Um. Uh. I guess 0:05:13.640 --> 0:05:16.040 what started this whole thing for me was an article 0:05:16.279 --> 0:05:19.960 on c neet by Martin Lamonica. Um. And of course 0:05:19.960 --> 0:05:21.760 we you know, I think each of us delved into 0:05:21.760 --> 0:05:24.040 it quite substantially more to find out more. But he 0:05:24.240 --> 0:05:27.520 wrote an really interesting piece about it. Well, we can 0:05:27.520 --> 0:05:30.800 get into why more in in a few minutes and 0:05:30.839 --> 0:05:33.000 when we get into more of the application. But one 0:05:33.040 --> 0:05:35.680 of the benefits of using these medals is that their 0:05:36.000 --> 0:05:42.080 their strength to weight ratio is so is so uh useful. Um, 0:05:42.120 --> 0:05:44.120 They're very strong for their weight, and that's why, as 0:05:44.160 --> 0:05:48.400 as Jonathan pointed out, uh, they do make excellent applications 0:05:48.520 --> 0:05:51.479 for things like that. In portable electronics. There and lots 0:05:51.480 --> 0:05:54.400 and lots of different kinds of portable electronics UM four 0:05:54.400 --> 0:05:56.600 different things, which we'll get into in a minute here. 0:05:56.640 --> 0:05:59.680 But UM uh yeah, that's that's just one of those 0:06:00.000 --> 0:06:03.080 as reasons why they're so useful, right. Yeah. The weight 0:06:03.200 --> 0:06:08.479 issue is a is non trivial. Uh. For instance, you know, 0:06:08.560 --> 0:06:11.440 you hear about people talking about like the iPad, the 0:06:11.480 --> 0:06:13.839 iPad weighs a little over a pound, and people will 0:06:13.839 --> 0:06:16.040 talk about how after a little while it feels like 0:06:16.080 --> 0:06:20.640 it's it's getting heavy in your hands. UM. I mean 0:06:20.720 --> 0:06:26.359 without the these particular metals to help design well, to 0:06:26.400 --> 0:06:29.160 help in the design of electronics, UM, they would be 0:06:29.160 --> 0:06:31.960 even heavier. It would not In fact, it probably would 0:06:32.000 --> 0:06:35.920 not be compact. We would have much larger electronics uh, 0:06:35.960 --> 0:06:39.080 and they would be less efficient, they'd be heavier. UM. 0:06:39.120 --> 0:06:41.039 It just would not be It wouldn't be the same 0:06:41.040 --> 0:06:43.400 world that we live in today if we didn't if 0:06:43.400 --> 0:06:45.680 we had not discovered the applications of these rare earth 0:06:45.800 --> 0:06:49.560 metals UM and some of the other applications of all 0:06:49.640 --> 0:06:55.960 things like displays and UM various other electronic components. The 0:06:56.040 --> 0:07:00.200 EUROPEUM in particular was used to produce color displays, And 0:07:00.279 --> 0:07:03.120 that's actually one that's fairly rare. Uh. Some of these 0:07:03.200 --> 0:07:07.480 rare earth metals are legitimately rare in the sense that 0:07:07.560 --> 0:07:11.040 we just we haven't found big deposits of them. Now. Granted, 0:07:11.160 --> 0:07:14.800 most electronics only use a couple of grams of this 0:07:14.920 --> 0:07:19.400 stuff at at most for a particular device. Yeah, there's 0:07:19.560 --> 0:07:22.520 there's a notable exception, but we'll get to that a second. Well, yeah, 0:07:22.520 --> 0:07:26.400 that's that's one of the things too about the using 0:07:26.400 --> 0:07:30.880 these devices. You they wouldn't necessarily need to be plentiful, um, 0:07:30.920 --> 0:07:34.720 except for the obviously the cost um in order to 0:07:34.760 --> 0:07:37.040 spread them around into the electronics because they are are 0:07:37.760 --> 0:07:42.040 so light and useful at their size. Um. But yeah, 0:07:42.040 --> 0:07:45.960 that that talking about the using them in displays. That's 0:07:46.080 --> 0:07:48.800 the first application I had seen about the mid twentieth 0:07:48.800 --> 0:07:52.000 century when they started making color television sets. Um, and 0:07:52.000 --> 0:07:54.800 they use some of these materials to make I believe 0:07:54.920 --> 0:07:58.280 I read the color red helped help make the red 0:07:58.320 --> 0:08:03.400 phosphour and uh in the TV screens. So that's that 0:08:03.480 --> 0:08:06.720 was one of the earliest, I think widespread uses of 0:08:06.840 --> 0:08:09.280 the rare earth metals. Yeah, today you you're gonna find 0:08:09.320 --> 0:08:12.960 it also in a lot of green technology stuff like 0:08:13.000 --> 0:08:17.960 solar panels, wind generators, fuel cells. UM, these all have 0:08:19.000 --> 0:08:23.800 some rare earth metals in them. And actually that's where 0:08:24.240 --> 0:08:26.800 it's funny, because these are supposed to be answers to 0:08:27.040 --> 0:08:31.120 things like the oil crisis, and UM, it's funny because 0:08:31.120 --> 0:08:33.880 they had were starting to hit a rare earth metal crisis. 0:08:35.160 --> 0:08:38.640 That's true. UM. One of the reasons for that is 0:08:38.679 --> 0:08:43.840 the the direct drive turbines UH and green technology for 0:08:43.920 --> 0:08:47.200 wind power. They use an awful lot of some of 0:08:47.240 --> 0:08:51.640 these devices. And I note now that some of my 0:08:51.679 --> 0:08:54.440 notes got cut off when I came in here, so 0:08:54.960 --> 0:08:57.360 the the number I had written down to use for 0:08:57.400 --> 0:09:00.560 this particular argument is now lost to me. What was 0:09:00.600 --> 0:09:02.960 that you happened to happen? Neodymium? Was the was the 0:09:03.000 --> 0:09:09.080 actual particular metal that because what's happening is let's let's 0:09:09.200 --> 0:09:13.200 let's talk about where these metals are currently coming from. Okay, 0:09:13.920 --> 0:09:18.600 They're almost all coming from China, Yes, Lamonica said about 0:09:19.800 --> 0:09:22.040 of the world's rare earth metals are coming from China 0:09:22.160 --> 0:09:25.880 right now. The figure I saw was between and so 0:09:26.160 --> 0:09:28.600 the vast majority of these metals are all coming out 0:09:28.600 --> 0:09:32.760 of China. And China doesn't just export these. China uses 0:09:32.800 --> 0:09:38.599 these metals in various electronics and applications as well. Right, what, 0:09:38.840 --> 0:09:41.840 it's one of the world's fastest growing economies, if not 0:09:42.000 --> 0:09:45.560 the fastest growing economy, and of course, uh, you know 0:09:45.679 --> 0:09:49.960 the popularity of electronics, um, you know in that country. 0:09:49.960 --> 0:09:54.040 Plus they've the government has been really pushing green technology. 0:09:54.880 --> 0:09:58.079 So with the applications and electronics and green technology, Uh, 0:09:58.120 --> 0:10:01.280 they've wanted to keep a lot of their rare earth 0:10:01.520 --> 0:10:04.520 metals to themselves to use in that and those applications. 0:10:04.559 --> 0:10:09.400 The problem being that they've they're plentiful in China and 0:10:09.840 --> 0:10:14.720 they've driven down the cost of mining them, so it's 0:10:14.720 --> 0:10:18.560 been sort of economically counterproductive for other countries to do that. 0:10:18.559 --> 0:10:21.960 They just import it from China. Yeah, that's a good point. Um, 0:10:22.120 --> 0:10:24.200 you might say, well, why why is it all coming 0:10:24.200 --> 0:10:26.200 from China? Does that just mean that all the metals 0:10:26.200 --> 0:10:29.840 are in China? No, I mean China is an enormous country. 0:10:29.920 --> 0:10:34.600 So that's that's part. Yeah, But the other element of 0:10:34.640 --> 0:10:37.600 that is, as us see, it just happens. It's like 0:10:37.600 --> 0:10:39.520 a drinking game. Every time you hear me say, element 0:10:39.600 --> 0:10:43.280 have a sip of fruit juice. Yes, So China's big country, 0:10:43.320 --> 0:10:45.200 there are a lot of rare earth metals there, but 0:10:45.240 --> 0:10:47.000 there are a lot of rare earth metals across the 0:10:47.160 --> 0:10:51.160 entire globe. Because China has driven the cost of mining 0:10:51.200 --> 0:10:53.440 down so much, it made more sense to just go 0:10:53.480 --> 0:10:56.040 ahead and purchase the metals from China than it did 0:10:56.080 --> 0:11:00.000 to invest in mining operations in other parts of the world. 0:11:00.040 --> 0:11:03.480 In fact, the United States had a rare earth metal mine. 0:11:04.040 --> 0:11:05.800 Yes it did, and it was shut down in two 0:11:05.800 --> 0:11:08.920 thousand two. Yes, I believe it's in Colorado. Uh that 0:11:09.080 --> 0:11:11.079 I can't tell you because I don't know for certain 0:11:11.360 --> 0:11:13.440 it is too. It definitely did shut down. No, wait, 0:11:13.480 --> 0:11:15.079 but one the one to shut down in two thousand 0:11:15.160 --> 0:11:19.920 two that I was reading was a complex in Mountain Pass, California, California. 0:11:19.920 --> 0:11:24.840 And that's right, the Colorado connection was the executive director 0:11:24.840 --> 0:11:28.160 of the Rare Earth Industry and Technology Association, Keith Delaney, 0:11:28.320 --> 0:11:33.520 who Lamonica quoted, and he is based in Colorado. But yeah, 0:11:33.520 --> 0:11:35.920 that that mine had shut down in in two thousand two. 0:11:35.920 --> 0:11:39.640 But they're bringing it back. Yes, because here's the deal is. 0:11:39.840 --> 0:11:45.199 As Chris was saying earlier about the wind generation um turbines, 0:11:47.400 --> 0:11:52.960 China's building a big green windmill type of network within 0:11:53.120 --> 0:11:58.160 the borders of China, and because it requires a lot 0:11:58.240 --> 0:11:59.720 of this or maybe not even a lot, but it 0:11:59.720 --> 0:12:05.360 re wires more neodymium than China actually produces. So that's 0:12:05.360 --> 0:12:07.280 why China is saying, you know what, We're not gonna 0:12:07.400 --> 0:12:10.120 export this anymore because we need it. In fact, we 0:12:10.160 --> 0:12:13.480 need more than what we produce in order to fulfill 0:12:13.600 --> 0:12:18.599 this project that we have planned. So um, you're not 0:12:18.640 --> 0:12:21.120 gonna get any And so that's when the rest of 0:12:21.120 --> 0:12:24.720 the world said, oh, you know what, depending upon one 0:12:24.760 --> 0:12:30.160 supplier for this one really particular material is maybe not 0:12:30.200 --> 0:12:34.960 the best idea because that one supplier can get cut off. 0:12:36.160 --> 0:12:38.840 The same thing actually happened, Actually, a similar thing happened 0:12:39.040 --> 0:12:41.880 with Japan. Uh. And this may or may not be 0:12:41.960 --> 0:12:48.480 politically um motivated, right Japan. China actually shut down expert 0:12:48.640 --> 0:12:53.439 exportation of rare earth metals to Japan and uh that 0:12:53.559 --> 0:12:56.960 might have been because of a diplomatic dispute. China says, no, 0:12:57.240 --> 0:12:59.720 that's not the reason, but the rest of the world 0:12:59.760 --> 0:13:02.840 kind says, yeah, that's kind of the reason. Um. And 0:13:02.920 --> 0:13:06.079 so that raised a lot of fears and the rest 0:13:06.080 --> 0:13:08.080 of the world saying, well, if China can do that 0:13:08.120 --> 0:13:11.480 if they're just gonna shut down exporting out these materials 0:13:11.480 --> 0:13:13.720 that we depend on in order to make the various 0:13:14.040 --> 0:13:17.600 electronic devices that are coming out today, where does that 0:13:17.679 --> 0:13:22.120 leave us, because we're not getting it from anywhere else. Um, 0:13:22.320 --> 0:13:24.920 right now, what that means is that it would leave us, 0:13:25.880 --> 0:13:29.280 uh in panic mode. We wouldn't we wouldn't necessarily run 0:13:29.280 --> 0:13:32.320 out of the metals immediately, because, as I said, in 0:13:32.400 --> 0:13:36.000 most applications, we're only using a tiny amount of these medals, 0:13:36.840 --> 0:13:39.840 you know, maybe a gram for a particular electronic device, 0:13:40.520 --> 0:13:46.280 with a big exception being hybrid and electric vehicles. Because 0:13:46.280 --> 0:13:49.640 supposedly a prius uses around thirty pounds of the stuff, 0:13:51.040 --> 0:13:54.120 So that's a lot compared to you know, an iPod 0:13:54.240 --> 0:13:58.000 or something. Yeah, and uh, from from what I can tell, 0:13:58.320 --> 0:14:03.760 apparently according to to Delaney, that is one of the problems. 0:14:03.800 --> 0:14:08.840 Even when the mine out in California comes back online 0:14:09.160 --> 0:14:12.800 and they said sometime in the next couple of years, 0:14:13.160 --> 0:14:17.000 there's also one in Australia, even with those new efforts, um, 0:14:17.080 --> 0:14:21.960 it is unlikely that the producers of rare earth metals 0:14:22.080 --> 0:14:24.880 can keep up with the world's demand for them. So 0:14:24.920 --> 0:14:28.720 I would imagine that the cost will remain high until 0:14:28.880 --> 0:14:32.480 there there is a way to produce them efficiently. Thankfully, 0:14:32.680 --> 0:14:34.560 China has said, you know, no, no, we're not going 0:14:34.600 --> 0:14:38.680 to shut down all exports of rare earth metals completely 0:14:38.720 --> 0:14:41.640 to the world. You know, I would imagine not that 0:14:41.760 --> 0:14:43.360 they can still make quite a bit of money on 0:14:43.400 --> 0:14:46.280 the world market with that. But uh, you know, they're 0:14:46.400 --> 0:14:49.520 the the brewjaja that erupted for about I'd say maybe 0:14:49.520 --> 0:14:53.200 a couple of days. Uh, sort of has subsided now 0:14:53.240 --> 0:14:55.520 that they the government has said, you know no, no, no no, no, 0:14:55.600 --> 0:14:57.920 don't read you know, that's not we're doing. You know, 0:14:58.240 --> 0:15:00.520 we will continue to export these things. But it has 0:15:00.560 --> 0:15:02.960 caused people to go, hey, you know, we really need 0:15:03.000 --> 0:15:05.280 to step this up. Maybe we need to actually invest 0:15:05.320 --> 0:15:09.160 in this technology. So this could mean one of many things. 0:15:09.200 --> 0:15:12.200 For one thing, China now that I mean essentially has 0:15:12.440 --> 0:15:16.640 the world over a pit right now, China could say, 0:15:17.480 --> 0:15:20.040 you know what we're gonna We're gonna increase the cost 0:15:20.080 --> 0:15:22.120 of these because there is a real value to this 0:15:22.240 --> 0:15:25.200 material and the and the value is greater than what 0:15:25.240 --> 0:15:30.720 we're charging and um and until that until that price 0:15:30.920 --> 0:15:33.480 exceeds what it would be to do the mining here 0:15:33.640 --> 0:15:36.280 in the United States or other parts of the world. 0:15:36.640 --> 0:15:38.960 It would still make more sense to buy to to 0:15:39.120 --> 0:15:41.920 pay up right, So the price would keep going up 0:15:41.920 --> 0:15:44.360 and we would keep paying because we'd say, well, the 0:15:44.400 --> 0:15:47.560 alternative is to mind it ourselves, and it's still not 0:15:48.240 --> 0:15:50.880 cheaper to mind it ourselves. That would be to pay 0:15:51.000 --> 0:15:54.960 pay extra money to China. UM. I'm sorry you were 0:15:55.000 --> 0:15:56.600 about to say, well, no, I was. I was going 0:15:56.640 --> 0:15:58.520 to get into something else that we had planned on 0:15:58.560 --> 0:16:01.880 talking about, which was the reason that this is sort 0:16:01.880 --> 0:16:05.000 of a sensitive issue too, is that it's not easy 0:16:05.320 --> 0:16:11.280 to get pure uh forms of the rare earth elements um, 0:16:11.400 --> 0:16:15.040 simply because they are most often found as oxides, so 0:16:15.160 --> 0:16:17.320 and they're mixed in with other things that can be 0:16:17.360 --> 0:16:23.200 mixed in with thorium and I believe uranium. So it's uh, 0:16:23.240 --> 0:16:25.240 you know, it's something that's difficult to do, and it's 0:16:25.280 --> 0:16:27.120 not a cheap process where you just go out and 0:16:27.160 --> 0:16:29.560 get a shovel and a wheelbarrow and start digging it up. 0:16:29.560 --> 0:16:31.640 So that's one of the things. Also that China has 0:16:31.680 --> 0:16:34.040 an advantage over the rest of the world. It appears 0:16:34.080 --> 0:16:36.880 that most of the rare earth metal deposits in China 0:16:37.640 --> 0:16:42.400 are not accompanied by radioactive uranium or or thorium. Yes, 0:16:42.520 --> 0:16:44.560 so they don't have to worry about radiation very much. 0:16:44.600 --> 0:16:46.200 That's not the way it is with through most of 0:16:46.200 --> 0:16:48.360 the world, which means that if we start mining these 0:16:48.440 --> 0:16:50.640 rare earth metals, we have to take into consideration the 0:16:50.640 --> 0:16:53.920 fact that there is radioactive material there as well. Yes, 0:16:54.200 --> 0:16:56.480 so that raises safety concerns. You have to figure out 0:16:56.520 --> 0:16:59.680 how you're going to store and or dispose of that 0:16:59.760 --> 0:17:03.800 radioact to material. How do you separate the rare earth 0:17:03.800 --> 0:17:06.840 metals in a reasonably safe way that's not going to 0:17:07.359 --> 0:17:10.680 drive the cost up so much that uh. You know, ultimately, 0:17:10.680 --> 0:17:12.280 what this can mean to you as a consumer is 0:17:12.280 --> 0:17:15.600 that the electronics that you purchased today could end up 0:17:15.600 --> 0:17:19.480 being way more expensive down the road once we start 0:17:19.880 --> 0:17:24.040 hitting these these limits with the these metals. Uh. And 0:17:24.080 --> 0:17:27.000 in China, the way that they mine these rare earth 0:17:27.040 --> 0:17:29.880 metals can be really destructive for the environment as well. 0:17:30.800 --> 0:17:34.200 What typically what they'll do is they'll cut down the 0:17:34.320 --> 0:17:37.160 vegetation in an area and they'll raise up the top 0:17:37.200 --> 0:17:40.920 soil and they use acids to leach out the rare 0:17:40.960 --> 0:17:44.880 earth metals UM and those acids can run off into 0:17:45.800 --> 0:17:50.960 the nearby water table. And that can kill off um plants, 0:17:51.000 --> 0:17:55.000 and it can affect animals um it's it can it 0:17:55.040 --> 0:17:58.960 containt water supplies. There's also some allegations that some of 0:17:59.000 --> 0:18:02.439 these rare earth metal minds in China, for some of 0:18:02.440 --> 0:18:08.679 the particularly rare metals, that they're actually um somewhat overseen 0:18:08.720 --> 0:18:14.280 by a criminal element. Chinese gangs essentially are are running 0:18:14.320 --> 0:18:18.000 these um some of these rare earth metal minds. So 0:18:18.840 --> 0:18:21.720 that's another issue, is that when we start purchasing these 0:18:21.760 --> 0:18:27.159 these electronic devices over here, technically we're kind of funding 0:18:27.800 --> 0:18:31.760 a criminal organization overseas well. I would imagine too that 0:18:31.840 --> 0:18:35.040 it's not it's probably like most industries where there is 0:18:35.080 --> 0:18:37.119 a group and then you know some of the others 0:18:37.119 --> 0:18:41.159 are not. And the problem is that the problem is 0:18:41.200 --> 0:18:45.040 that manufacturers over here can't necessarily tell where they're rare 0:18:45.080 --> 0:18:47.479 earth metals. Like it's it's not like you can go 0:18:47.560 --> 0:18:51.120 to the rare earth metal market and get the hey, look, 0:18:51.160 --> 0:18:54.920 this is free range thorium over your not thorium obviously, 0:18:54.960 --> 0:18:57.720 but yes, I don't need to worry about the fact 0:18:57.760 --> 0:19:00.720 that this metal came from this my because this mine's 0:19:00.720 --> 0:19:03.919 a legitimate mind. There's no criminal element here there's no 0:19:03.960 --> 0:19:06.159 way to tell, right, So it's I'm not I'm not 0:19:06.240 --> 0:19:09.399 placing blame on the manufacturers necessarily because they have to 0:19:09.400 --> 0:19:11.960 get the stuff from somewhere. Um, I'm just saying that 0:19:12.000 --> 0:19:15.439 it's a bad system overall because there's no way to 0:19:15.520 --> 0:19:19.400 know for sure whether or not. Uh, you're enabling this 0:19:19.440 --> 0:19:23.080 criminal element of like speak. Oh man, how many times 0:19:23.080 --> 0:19:26.240 am I gonna use that word? The sad thing is, 0:19:26.280 --> 0:19:29.560 I think you're actually catching it by no doing an 0:19:29.560 --> 0:19:32.439 accidentally and then catching it. I did find, as it 0:19:32.480 --> 0:19:36.280 turns out, I didn't accidentally delete my notes. Um. Yeah. 0:19:36.320 --> 0:19:38.600 The volume, the volume I was stunned to see was 0:19:39.240 --> 0:19:43.080 Keith Delaney again speaking of the the direct drive wind 0:19:43.119 --> 0:19:46.840 turbines used in wind power. Um. Because each megawatt of 0:19:46.840 --> 0:19:50.879 electricity generated requires half a ton of permanent magnets. Wow, 0:19:52.200 --> 0:19:54.600 I see that's all. That's a whole lot of um. 0:19:54.640 --> 0:19:57.199 There's a whole lot of uh these rare earth manimls. 0:19:57.240 --> 0:20:00.640 And the thing is UM to that, you know, talking 0:20:00.640 --> 0:20:02.800 about the electronics, The cost of your electronics going up, 0:20:03.040 --> 0:20:05.080 the cost of the electricity depending on where you live 0:20:05.119 --> 0:20:07.560 and what's being used to generate it. Uh, cost of 0:20:07.560 --> 0:20:12.080 electricity to power those electronics could also go up. Yeah, 0:20:12.359 --> 0:20:14.479 So I mean it's it's something that matters to us, 0:20:14.480 --> 0:20:18.080 but we don't normally think about it. And going back 0:20:18.119 --> 0:20:20.600 to the green element for just a second, it also 0:20:20.640 --> 0:20:24.639 means that going green could end up becoming much more expensive, 0:20:25.119 --> 0:20:29.119 depending on whether or not China, uh, you know, allows 0:20:29.200 --> 0:20:33.840 exports of these rare earth metals or the green technology. Um, 0:20:33.920 --> 0:20:37.160 if we do start opening up more minds across the world, 0:20:37.200 --> 0:20:43.480 it'll all depend upon how efficient those mining processes are. Uh. Otherwise, again, 0:20:43.520 --> 0:20:45.680 we could see that this green technology, the price of 0:20:45.720 --> 0:20:48.919 green technology may rise exponentially. So then you're getting to 0:20:48.920 --> 0:20:50.399 a point where you're saying, all right, does is it 0:20:50.440 --> 0:20:56.520 economically feasible to switch from a petroleum based economy or 0:20:56.640 --> 0:21:00.760 petroleum based fuel source to renewable in g doesn't make 0:21:00.800 --> 0:21:04.800 sense financially. And the scary thing is is if this 0:21:05.119 --> 0:21:07.359 these prices go up high enough, the answer to that 0:21:07.440 --> 0:21:09.760 is going to be no, it doesn't make sense financially 0:21:09.840 --> 0:21:13.320 until it gets so bad with the the you know, 0:21:13.560 --> 0:21:18.880 the oil situation that it almost becomes like a panic 0:21:19.040 --> 0:21:22.359 to try and fund green technology so that you can 0:21:22.560 --> 0:21:26.480 you know, close that gap. And one of the the 0:21:26.520 --> 0:21:30.800 objections some people have to using oil as an energy 0:21:31.200 --> 0:21:35.960 source is that it means that we're dependent upon foreign 0:21:36.119 --> 0:21:39.240 countries for two in order to get our fuel right, 0:21:39.240 --> 0:21:42.159 and that we're essentially funding some of these countries that 0:21:42.240 --> 0:21:47.800 have anti American sentiments. So we're giving money to people 0:21:47.840 --> 0:21:50.000 who don't like us very much, is what that kind 0:21:50.000 --> 0:21:53.200 of boils down to, the same sort of problem happens here. 0:21:53.200 --> 0:21:56.199 If China is the only supplier and we are have 0:21:56.359 --> 0:21:59.679 to play by China's game, then we are giving money 0:21:59.720 --> 0:22:02.560 to a foreign power and we're dependent upon that foreign 0:22:02.600 --> 0:22:06.280 power for energy needs. It's no better than the oil 0:22:06.680 --> 0:22:09.679 as far as that part of the equation is concerned. Now, granted, 0:22:09.760 --> 0:22:11.800 there's the whole other part of it. You know, you're 0:22:11.840 --> 0:22:15.840 not generating pollution by using this kind of power, and 0:22:15.880 --> 0:22:19.960 that that's a totally different argument that that. You know, 0:22:20.000 --> 0:22:22.720 you can still say, well, green technology is superior, but 0:22:23.440 --> 0:22:27.880 from a from a dependence on foreign nation perspective, it's 0:22:27.920 --> 0:22:31.920 the same. Yeah. And of course, uh, we're speaking from 0:22:32.200 --> 0:22:34.879 a point of view from the United States, and many 0:22:34.920 --> 0:22:39.399 of our listeners come from other countries, but in many 0:22:39.440 --> 0:22:43.080 cases there a lot of them aren't importing a lot 0:22:43.080 --> 0:22:47.320 of their rare earth metals from China and other countries too. 0:22:47.359 --> 0:22:49.800 It's not something like in the case of Japan, apparently 0:22:49.840 --> 0:22:52.680 there are not many. It's hot. They really are very 0:22:52.760 --> 0:22:55.840 rare in Japan itself, and they do rely on imports 0:22:55.880 --> 0:22:58.560 there more than they would in other countries like we do. 0:22:59.000 --> 0:23:03.160 Apparently India is heavy a reasonably good supply and they 0:23:03.160 --> 0:23:06.879 are are minding them themselves as well. But UM, I 0:23:06.920 --> 0:23:08.600 don't know about a lot of the other countries around 0:23:08.600 --> 0:23:10.680 the world. So yeah, I mean it's there's a security 0:23:10.680 --> 0:23:14.359 situation there too, for whatever countries that may need this 0:23:14.520 --> 0:23:17.399 for you know, I'm sure a lot of defense electronics 0:23:17.480 --> 0:23:20.520 rely on on these medals. There was actually a report recently, 0:23:20.920 --> 0:23:23.840 uh in the United States government from the Department of 0:23:23.880 --> 0:23:28.439 Defense saying that, um, they were not worried about this 0:23:28.520 --> 0:23:31.359 current situation and that they did not see it impacting 0:23:31.400 --> 0:23:35.400 the national security. Uh. I don't know how they could 0:23:35.440 --> 0:23:39.880 have said anything else without generating a panic. So I'm 0:23:39.920 --> 0:23:45.000 not saying that they are being optimistic or they're painting 0:23:45.000 --> 0:23:48.600