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fauxbeauceron t1_jahc025 wrote

If that method can be scaled up that would be an amazing environmentally friendly alternative to mining! Amazing news!

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exit2dos t1_jahit3q wrote

> alternative to mining

This will not negate the need to initially mine the REE's. The 'wastewater' they are talking about it wastewater from mining.

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Regolithic_Tiger t1_jai47ff wrote

True, but mine water quality is a huge barrier to successful mine closure.

This has the potential to allow for way less chemical treatment, and therefore lower costs of closure and less likelihood of abandoning mines.... Provided it can also address other metals too.

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exit2dos t1_jai62fj wrote

Absolutely ! The more the wastewater and tailings can be processed the less harmful they should (theoretically) become.

Settling Ponds are a wealth of resources, it is just unknown how & therefore unfeasable to process a lot of the that waste.

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Regolithic_Tiger t1_jao5qjb wrote

tailings storage facilities (TSFs) are what you're thinking of. Settling ponds are those that are specifically designed to settle out suspended solids. TSFs will often contain a pond on them, but much of the impoundment area is beach (with varying degrees of water content). what I'm getting at, is that TSFs are more solid than water, while settling ponds are more water than solid (AFAIK). Mining terminology is weird.

And yes, in some cases tailings are reprocessed when technology catches up. It's kind of hard to do though.

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[deleted] t1_jalijat wrote

[deleted]

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Regolithic_Tiger t1_jao5yzv wrote

That's contact water, dude. It's not supposed to be clean. they have those ponds to manage their water so it doesn't get released to the environment. They then take the water from the ponds (and TSFs) and run it through the treatment plant or some other form of treatment and then discharge it once it meets water quality guidelines.

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fauxbeauceron t1_jai26jy wrote

Just a taught experiment : what if we make plants and mushrooms concentrate those minerals for us then make a soup with them. Then the bacteria finish the job.

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exit2dos t1_jai5ew1 wrote

I would think they would need caves to grow in, with the REE's exposed on (or near) the loose exposed surface. Mushrooms dont have roots like trees. I am unsure if the wanted REE's would be considered nutrients to a plant or mushroom. (after-thought; Some REE's definatly not as they are toxic and/or (mildly) radioactive).

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Nozinger t1_jaj8e16 wrote

Not necessarily. The seawater can also contain those rare earth minerals with current methods it is just way too expensive to extract those comercially.
If we find a way to improve this technology and make it way cheaper or use it on a bigger scale we could potentially extract those elements from the sea.

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crackpipecardozo t1_jajhj2l wrote

What about brine produced from oil and gas formations. Probably billions (if not trillions) of gallons of this in the US

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exit2dos t1_jajqr4x wrote

I believe they are talking about the Brine slurry, just nameing it 'wastewater' for layman understanding.

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runetrantor t1_jaj8bjr wrote

Wouldnt this sort of... filter out part of the contaminants of the wastewater so it not as environmentally damaging? Yes, its still from traditional mining, which in of itself is bad for the land, but maybe this can help not pollute the watertable as much?

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reallyfatjellyfish t1_jahd9nr wrote

Everyday through the efforts of millions our collective future get brighter and brighter. I hope this will take off like they claim it will ā€¢uā€¢

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lughnasadh OP t1_jaheh1y wrote

>>If that method can be scaled up

I don't think there's any technical issue with it being scaled up, the researchers say as much in the original paper.

The issue is cost.

Will it produce the rare earth elements as cheaply as the mined product?

If supply-chain security is an issue, then maybe consumers might have to accept higher prices from non-Chinese sources.

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ShitTalkingAlt980 t1_jahl38o wrote

There always is.

Source: just watched the same thing happen for Au from a wunderkind firm from Houston. Small test pad even showed promise. It is incredibly variable on a production leach pad.

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danny17402 t1_jahzsfe wrote

We need to ramp up mining by roughly ten times what we're currently doing in the next ten years to meet the EU's goals for the green energy transition.

Nothing is replacing mining. We're already on pace to be behind where we need to be by an order of magnitude, and unfortunately public opinion is not currently where it needs to be to do anything about that. Mining IS environmentally friendly, when it's done right in countries with the proper regulation, in that the local environmental effects are minimal and short term, and it's literally the only way we have any hope of slowing climate change.

Methods like in the OP won't be viable until it's too late, and even then they'll be a drop in the bucket compared to mining.

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pend-bungley t1_jakdgrp wrote

> We need to ramp up mining by roughly ten times what we're currently doing in the next ten years to meet the EU's goals for the green energy transition.

Do you have any links I can read more about this? Thanks.

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danny17402 t1_jakok07 wrote

Sorry, I was paraphrasing from a talk I attended last week (I'm an economic geologist), but I don't have the data handy.

Suffice to say, most people in the industry don't have high hopes for our metal output in the next couple of decades. Nuclear is really our only hope imo.

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