<
https://theconversation.com/australia-wants-to-be-a-critical-minerals-superpower-but-processing-is-messy-and-dangerous-269799>
"In October, Australia signed a A$13 billion rare earths and critical minerals
agreement with the United States. This is designed to boost supply of minerals
vital to everything from military technology to clean energy.
Australia has large reserves of many of these minerals, while the US is trying
to find alternative supplies after China gained a stranglehold on much of the
global supply.
But there’s a sting in the tail. To date, Australia hasn’t produced many of
these elements domestically, preferring to mine the ores here and do the highly
polluting processing overseas. Turning ores into minerals comes with a host of
pollution issues, from radioactive waste to dangerous chemicals.
For Australia to become a major rare earths and critical minerals player, it
will have to better manage these environmental risks."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
