wmw999 2,123 #26 November 26, 2020 Yes, it's been in a number of outlets. We all want smartphones, and we want them cheap, and China is willing to make the Mongolians pay the price. Kind of like farmers in the US are willing to make downstream people pay the price for hog farming and over-fertilization, and miners all over the world, etc. It's heinous, and the Chinese are currently about the worst, all in pursuit of the almighty coin of whatever realm. Who made the components for the cell phone you use? And how often do you replace it? Wendy P. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
gowlerk 1,914 #27 November 26, 2020 1 hour ago, markharju said: It has been my understanding up until now that rare earths are everywhere but that only China has thus far been willing to take the huge environmental hits which are required in order to extract them. An article I read years ago about this topic was accompanied by a photo of an immense lake of toxic waste somewhere in the Chinese interior. Do you remember seeing anything about that? Yes, there is considerable pollution involved in the various processes of extracting the material. The Chinese deposits are apparently mostly in clay. There are also significant, but smaller deposits of commercial value in California and I believe Wyoming. But so far they are staying in the ground because of the difficulty of extraction and the fact that the Chinese produce enough of them at a price that will not support US mining. They are quite common, but not so commonly found in concentrations worth mining. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
billvon 2,400 #28 November 26, 2020 7 hours ago, wmw999 said: Yes, it's been in a number of outlets. We all want smartphones, and we want them cheap, and China is willing to make the Mongolians pay the price. Kind of like farmers in the US are willing to make downstream people pay the price for hog farming and over-fertilization, and miners all over the world, etc. It's heinous, and the Chinese are currently about the worst, all in pursuit of the almighty coin of whatever realm. That would almost imply that it's capitalism causing those kinds of problems . . . Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
