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Is anyone looking at the millions of tons of #RareEarths sitting untapped inside phosphogypsum deposits scattered all over central Florida?
This paper estimates that they're at 0.04%-1% concentration and there's 1bn tons of deposits, which translates to 400,000 tons to 10m tons of rare earths or up to a century's worth of global demand at current rates.
osti.gov/pages/servlets…
osti.gov/pages/servlets…
I say "deposits", really I mean waste/tailings.
I presume the difficulty of safe extraction is why no one is interested in this, but ... if you're really worried that F-35s won't be able to fly because of a rare earths import ban, it's worth thinking about.
I presume the difficulty of safe extraction is why no one is interested in this, but ... if you're really worried that F-35s won't be able to fly because of a rare earths import ban, it's worth thinking about.
