Inside China's secret toxic unobtainium mine

Inside China's secret toxic unobtainium mine

www.dailymail.co.uk

Last week it was reported that China - which has a global monopoly on the production of rare-earth metals - is now threatening to cut off vital supplies to the West

(visit the link for the full news article)

Again we are getting conned if this is what companies will do to obtain green product we are doomed.

to destroy mother earth and human lives in search of green solutions is again showing the insane thinking of our leaders and it's advisers.

then again they say things are warming up on the planet why then am I buried in a foot of snow and minus 19 for the last week with no end in sight.
peace& hope
smokingman

www.dailymail.co.uk
(visit the link for the full news article)

Originally posted by smokingman2006



to destroy mother earth and human lives in search of green solutions is again showing the insane thinking of our leaders and it's advisers.


www.dailymail.co.uk
(visit the link for the full news article)

There is nothing green about that picture in the mail. This opens your eyes to how un-green some of these solutions actually are.

It is good to see you posting.

How does one obtain unobtainium? [/joke]

Seriously though.. I never heard of this unobtainium until Avatar. Thought it was just a cheesy name for a theoretical element.

IRM

Originally posted by smokingman2006


then again they say things are warming up on the planet why then am I buried in a foot of snow and minus 19 for the last week with no end in sight.
peace& hope
smokingman

Because, I would guess you are in the UK, and the UK is one of the few places where global warming actually makes it colder. Typical of our luck eh?

reply to post by InfaRedMan


Unobtanium is not an element,according to the article,it is a cheesy name for rare earths.Hey I'm from Wisconsin,hereabouts,cheesy is a good thing.Especially that hooks 15 year aged cheddar,mmm,but at $50+ per pound,it is the unobtanium of cheeses.

[edit on 10-1-2010 by trueforger]

reply to post by smokingman2006


Rare earth elements, Wiki:

Your Prius batteries depend on dysprosium!

Rare earth elements are incorporated into many modern technological devices, including superconductors, samarium-cobalt and neodymium-iron-boron high-flux rare-earth magnets, electronic polishers, refining catalysts and hybrid car components (primarily batteries and magnets).[5] Rare earth ions are used as the active ions in luminescent materials used in optoelectronics applications, most notably the Nd:YAG laser. Erbium-doped fiber amplifiers are significant devices in optical-fiber communication systems. Phosphors with rare earth dopants are also widely used in cathode ray tube technology such as television sets. The earliest color television CRTs had a poor-quality red; europium as a phosphor dopant made good red phosphors possible. Yttrium iron garnet (YIG) spheres have been useful as tunable microwave resonators. Rare earth oxides are mixed with tungsten to improve its high temperature properties for welding, replacing thorium, which was mildly hazardous to work with.

China is by no means the only source, California and Canada have deposits. China just has the most and the cheapest for now:

Until 1948, most of the world's rare earths were sourced from placer sand deposits in India and Brazil.[6] Through the 1950s, South Africa took the status as the world's rare earth source, after large rare earth bearing veins were discovered in Monazite.[6] Today, those Indian and South African deposits still produce some rare earth concentrates, but they are dwarfed by the scale of Chinese production. China now produces over 95% of the world's rare earth supply.[5] The use of rare earth elements in modern technology has increased dramatically over the past years. For example, dysprosium has gained significant importance for its use in the construction of hybrid car motors.[7] Unfortunately, this new demand has strained supply, and there is growing concern that the world may soon face a shortage of the materials.[8] In several years, worldwide demand for rare earth elements is expected to exceed supply by 40,000 tonnes annually unless major new sources are developed.[9] All of the world's heavy rare earths (such as dysprosium) are sourced from Chinese rare earth sources such as the polymetallic Bayan Obo deposit.[10] Illegal rare earth mines are common in rural China and are often known to release toxic wastes into the general water supply.[11] A rare earth element mine in California is set to reopen by 2012. A site at Thor Lake in the Northwest Territories is also under development. Locations in Vietnam have also been considered.[9]

The GREEN world we envision depends upon the now dirty and toxic production of these rare earths! Chinese production is so toxic officials have banned the media from anywhere near these sights. The environmental costs are tremendous.

I don't remember Honda mentioning anything about this in their promotion materials for the Prius!

Originally posted by trueforger
reply to post by InfaRedMan

 

Hey I'm from Wisconsin,hereabouts, cheesy is a good thing. Especially that hooks 15 year aged cheddar, mmm, but at $50+ per pound, it is the unobtanium of cheeses.

Cheese... Mmmmm... How do I obtain some?

IRM

reply to post by plumranch


Wow! This stuff is eye opening! What F'nG HYPOCRISY!

Originally posted by InfaRedMan



Cheese... Mmmmm... How do I obtain some?

Easy, start a senseless war, invade cheese planet, send in sleeper Avatars and kill every damn last jerk that stands between you and your cheese.

I am also sure China knows this as well.

reply to post by Zosynspiracy

Wow! This stuff is eye opening! What F'nG HYPOCRISY!

It is! But Obama and his democrats keep heading down the Green is good, green is clean dead end and the truth is there are very large environmental and social costs that are just being ignored while we satisfy the Green Religion carving.

I think green is great too but I realize its shortcomings. And one of the greatest tragedies is what is happening in the mining regions of China. Do a search on it. It's dreadful!

reply to post by plumranch



As I get older I keep going back to one simple and very true almost childish saying.....THERE IS NO FREE LUNCH! We as humans can come up with just about anything to solve our problems..........but we don't really solve any thing. We solve one problem and create another. Will we ever learn? Take resources for example and this mining subject..........did it ever occur to anyone that WE JUST HAVE TOO MUCH CRAP! We as human beings need to learn to live a more simpler life......quit being so damn materialistic. We are so doomed as a human race. I don't see humanity ever changing course......all this bs talk about waking up and human consciousness no way. Even if millions of us "wake up" and approach a higher level of consciousness.......so what? There are billions of others who will never wake up and most importantly those in power.

I really to do feel we are in the end of times. The twilight of humanity or if you want to be specific twilight of civilization of North America.............ended with the destruction of Native Americans and the rape and pillaging of their land. America and her Natives were the last bastion of free and natural people.......and we as squashed the last cornerstone of how people could really live in tune with nature and their natural world. Technology will not save us. It's like bailing water out of a sinking boat..........

China can keep there rare earths.

We have enough to let them in the mines in Calif, Alaska and Canada.

This has been a trap that backfired on china.

They thought that by undercutting the west till our mines shut down they could then control the production of needed metals.
They did this by using mining processes that killed people on a large scale and spued toxins around the world.
What they never understood is the US and Canada are mineral rich beyond china's belief.

Even with gold the US and Canada has only mined 1/10 of 1% of the mine-able gold.
99.9% of the gold in the US is still in the ground unmined.

[edit on 11-1-2010 by ANNED]

reply to post by Zosynspiracy

As I get older I keep going back to one simple and very true almost childish saying.....THERE IS NO FREE LUNCH! We as humans can come up with just about anything to solve our problems

I went green and installed a Ground Soruce Heat Pump a year or so ago and I am soooo happy because of all the money I am saving and all the propane I am no burning. Pretty incredible really.

The other cool application I have done a couple of times is use solar electric to power remote lodges and cabins. It is so cool also! They last forever practically except for the batteries and the energy is free (less the environmental costs of producing the pannels)!

No free lunch but have some fun along the way, do the right thing, no free lunch, be responsible for all your stuff ..... you got it!

Quit your Green bashing this instant. Green living IS good for the earth, not all green tech is , but living green is always of benifit.
You dont NEED all these godamned gadgets that require rare earth components in order to live in an ecologicaly friendly way . You need to recycle, use less fossil fuel, and in short aviod waste . There are ways to build homes that heat themselves virtualy , homes so thoughtfuly built that using one single solar panel, one could sell thousands of pounds of excess energy back to the grid each year.
This doesnt require a large amount of rare earth gear. Just common sense and the drive to change the world for the better. This thread should be about CHINA bashing, not green bashing. After all , its not green concerns that mean that China has to spew more pollutants into the atmosphere than virtualy any other nation.

Aside from that we need to free up our creativity to see what can be done, and really develop clean technology and market it open source, to the people so anyone can build or use it. Ie. I keep reading about the oil industry and how even our digital cameras depend on it. How so???? Everything we use oil derivatives for, or much of it, can be substituted by plant derivatives. We can make plastics out of plants. We can make batteries that are rechargeable by wind and solar and dont depelete the plankton, which right now is being depleted faster than the rain forrest by our toxic technology.


We don't have to cut down forrests to build houses. Do you know that wonderful cob or adobe style homes can be made out of hemp slurry? Long fibred hemp. We don't have to use cement which produces co2.

Theres no reason to limit inventions or technology for the household. We don't need to go back to the olden days, we can advance cosmically, with clean technology. Energy itself, they are already using differnt energy than even the solar and wind, I mean our elites, to power their secret crafts. The actual hyperdimensional model of geometry provides energy.

In any case, my point is, its possible to be green, environmentally friendly, not harm earth or nature ever, and stop depeleting our planet, our mother's resources, or the oceans and air with depleted uranium, its possible to simply develop clean and friendly things. Many are already developed, some buried. Like an electric battery that can go highway speeds and pull a big load.

thank you for all your replies here

I to am for a green future but not at any cost.

The poor people of the world should not have to suffer in order for rich western nation to convert to green tech.

We are the ones who stuff things in the first place.


the common people of China, Burma, Africa, Indonesia, are paying a huge human toll right now to source these green solutions for the west for wages of a couple dollars a day.

peace& hope
SM

[edit on 11-1-2010 by smokingman2006]

reply to post by InfaRedMan

Ya just google Hooks aged cheddar,Mineral Point,Wis.,it is THE BEST.But ya can't obtain the 15yr just the 1,2,3,5,7 and 10.They ship,but hold on to thy wallet...
Anyway,it sure seems like this boiling in acid and other highly polluting processes could be brought up to modern standards with technology.

China must be certain to move their population on out and soon,as living with this crap is not sustainable.

reply to post by TrueBrit

After all , its not green concerns that mean that China has to spew more pollutants into the atmosphere than virtualy any other nation.

Not "green concern" as you say but it is the "Green Money" spent by "greenies" like you, me and others that fuels the demand that causes the development and operation of highly polluting Chinese mines. Mines more polluting and hideous than you will find anywhere. Do a search, see what those mines do the the countryside and its people.

The Chinese are only reacting to market forces!

What should and won't happen (because the political forces like Obama, Pelosi, and the EU won't get involved) is an in depth investigation and problem solving effort by a world organization. But that is not politically correct at the moment. Few people even know the problem exists and if they do it's not in their back yard!