usatoday24
With the commercial war initiated by the United States, some of Washington’s weaknesses on the key supplies chains for many of its strategic sectors have been uncovered. We speak mainly of those minerals and rare earths that China dominates With iron fist on the planet. Recently we met a paradox that served as the perfect example of the stage: the United States had been financing some mines in Brazil for years, and when it has gone to collect its fruits it has been found that its content was already sold … To China.
Perhaps for this reason, the last finding can change the balance.
From toxic to treasure. The story was told this week The New York Times. At first glance, the Berkeley Pit in ButteMontana, is a crack Open environment: a mining crater abandoned since 1982full with more than 190,000 million liters of highly acidic and toxic waters product of mines acid drainage. However, under its contaminated surface an unexpected resource is hidden: a mineral cocktail that could transform this ecological threat into a strategic mine of rare, fundamental elements for critical technologies of Washington, from electric vehicles … even guided missiles.
Apparently, thanks to Recent advances In Extraction methods, American scientists and companies are exploring How to take advantage of this waste Liquid to obtain neodymium, PRASODIMIO, ZINC, COBALT, NICQUEL AND OTHER KEY MINERALS. With a single F-35 requiring about 400 kilos of rare earths And the growing geopolitical pressure in reducing China’s dependence, the interest in exploiting these resources previously considered useless has shot in the United States.
Water as a new reef. In words of Peter Fiskedirector of National Alliance for Water Innovation“Water is the site of the 21st century.” This vision, until recently marginal, seems to be gaining ground quickly as the methods multiply to recover dissolved minerals in industrial wastewater, salmuelas of desalination plants and mining drains.
We talk about research from universities such as Indiana, Texas or West Virginia, who have developed Innovative techniques that allow Separate rare earth of liquid waste by biomimetic membranesion exchangers or solvent leaks. The team of the researcher Paul Ziemkiewicz, for example, has achieved Convert acid sludge In rare earth concentrates through a progressive extraction process, one that is already used successfully in western virginia coal mines and is now proven in Butte, where the volume and mineral concentration of the Berkeley Pit up to 40 tons per year.
Berkeley Pit
Geopolitics of acid drainage. Plus: This kind of liquid mining rebirth does not happen in a vacuum. We have been telling before: in a global context Where China controls Most rare earth supply and can manipulate prices or restrict exports In response to sanctions or commercial disputes, the discovery of viable internal sources is a national security priority for the United States.
In this regard, The Times told that the Department of Defense has financed much of the Butte researchand an investment is expected 75 million dollars to build a concentration plant that allows to purify the extracted metals and climb the production. Not just that. As we have explained before, countries Like Greenland and Ukraine They have been identified by Washington as key regions for their mineral reserves, while promoting plans to extract minerals of the seabedeven in international waters.
Recycling and sovereignty. Here we go with a reminder. Rare earth elements are a Group of 17 metals divided between heavy and light, and curiously they are not really scarce, but the problem lies in their geological dispersion and, above all, Its complex extractionwhich make them strategic resources (already China in expert in the field). It happens that the pollution generated by the mines acid drainage, which has affected thousands of km of rivers in the United States, now it is also An opportunity.
As? When oxidizing and solubilize minerals As zinc or copper, these waters allow them to recover them if the appropriate technology is available. In addition, the current approach prioritizes clean and sustainable solutions, such as the use of “nanosponges” (molecular sponges capable of capturing specific metals) or electrolysis driven by renewable energy to produce magnesium from desalinated salmueras, initiatives that,, According to the Timesthey are backed by start-ups like Magrathea Metals and Lilac Solutions.
These new technologies would allow to extract resources without resorting to open -pit mines, with less environmental impact and greater efficiency.
Berkeley Pit as a symbol. Thus, the story of the Berkeley Pit (from toxic well that poisoned thousands of birds Migratory to the potential mine of the future) could perfectly symbolize the transformation that the extractive industry is going through in a world that demands more minerals, but tolerates less environmental destruction.
For decades, metals dissolved in their waters have been a threat, and today they represent a promise. If the model developed in Butte It is replicated in many other contaminated sites in the United States, they could have found a solution to supply much of, for example, those those 1,400 tons annual that the country needs only for its defense.
And if we add to the global demand of rare earth projected to increase up to 600 % In the next decades, what’s doubt, that promise becomes increasingly strategic. The irony is that yesterday’s liquid garbage … points to today’s strategic wealth.
Image | James St. John
In Xataka | China has done what the global industry feared: block the export of the most valuable rare earths
GIPHY App Key not set. Please check settings