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The following is an Encore presentation

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of Everything Everywhere Daily. Modern

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society is completely dependent upon a

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set of technologies that includes computer

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chips, fiber optic cables, lasers, video

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screens, electric motors, and batteries. All

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of those things are dependent upon a

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small category of chemicals called rare

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earth elements. Their importance in technology has

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made them a focal point of

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international trade and politics. Learn more

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about rare earth elements and how the

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world has become completely reliant on them on

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this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. This

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episode is sponsored by Quince. Vacation

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for details. So

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let's start out with the fundamentals.

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What is a rare earth element?

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There are 17 rare earth elements

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on the periodic table. The two

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lightest are scandium and yttrium, which

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are located in the third period

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or the third column of the

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periodic table. The other 15 are

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the lanthanide elements. If you've looked

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at a periodic table, you might

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remember that there's a section of

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elements that are separated from the

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rest and form two rows at

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the bottom. The lanthanides are the

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top row of those two rows.

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The 15 lanthanide elements are lanthanum,

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cerium, praseodymium, neodymium, promethium, samarium, europium,

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gadololinium, terbium, dysprosium, holmium,

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erbium, thulium,

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eterbium, and lutetium.

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And I just want to say that after reading

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that list, my hat goes off to Tom

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Lehrer. So I think it's fair to say that

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for the most part, none of us deal

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with these elements on a daily basis. They're all

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soft, silvery metals that are rather heavy. However,

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I don't want to get into a chemistry analysis

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of each element because that would be painfully

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boring and most of you would wind up pouring

3:56

wax in your ears. I will

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just add as a fun fact that four

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of those 17 elements are named after

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the tiny village of Iterby in Sweden. What's

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really interesting about rare earth elements is

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their importance in the world economy, because

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they are really, really important. If you

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remember back to my previous episodes on

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specific elements in the periodic table, most

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elements were discovered in the 19th and

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early 20th centuries. It became a lot

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easier once the periodic table of elements

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was set, and it was possible to

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see where the holes were to fill

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them in. Here I should

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note that most of the rare earth elements

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are not in fact all that rare.

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To be sure, they aren't as common as

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iron or silicon, but most of them

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are on a par with other metals like

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tin or gold. The least common element

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is promethium, which actually is quite rare and

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radioactive, but the most common element is

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cerium, which is the 25th most common element

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in the Earth's crust. The rare

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earth elements weren't really that big of

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a deal prior to the year 1965.

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They were more of a curiosity,

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and they didn't have that much

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economic value. So, what happened in

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1965? And the answer is color

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television. It turned out that one

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of the key components for color

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TVs was the element europium. As

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color TVs were a huge thing

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for TV manufacturers, there was suddenly

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a huge rush to find europium.

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The mineral monzanite would often have

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a europium content of about 0 .05%.

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However, a location was discovered in

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California, just over the border from

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Las Vegas, which had a europium

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content of a whopping 0 .1%.

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Over the years, more and more

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uses were found for rare earth

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elements. One of the biggest uses

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was found in extremely strong natural

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magnets, in particular neodymium magnets. They

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were discovered in 1984 by General

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Motors, and they are the strongest

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commercially available natural magnets that you

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can buy today. They can support

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thousands of times their own weight,

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and have applications in whatever you

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can use magnets for. You can

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either get more magnetism for something

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the same size, or the same

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amount of magnetism for something much

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smaller. Neodymium magnets are

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something you're probably familiar with, but the

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applications for rare earth elements are

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almost endless. Almost every technology product you

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can think of has at least

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some trace amounts of rare earth elements

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in them. Lasers,

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hard drives, MRI machines,

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batteries, high -intensity lights, computer

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chips, fuel cells, nuclear

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reactors, LEDs, solar panels,

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wind turbines, jet engines,

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various military equipment, everything.

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Whatever you are listening to this

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podcast on right now has some rare

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earth elements in it. So it

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shouldn't be too difficult to see just

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how important these elements are to

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the world economy. No more rare earth

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elements, no more modern technology. So,

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where do these rare earth elements

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come from? Before World War

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II, what little production of rare earth elements

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there was all came from easily mineable

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sands in India and Brazil. Because it was

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sand, it didn't require a huge operation

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to extract the ore, and there wasn't a

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lot of demand anyhow, so not much

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needed to be produced. Through most

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of the 1950s, most of the

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world's production was located in a

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single location, the Steenkampstkraal mine in

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South Africa. That shifted when the

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aforementioned Mountain Pass mine opened in

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California. Again, this single mine was

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responsible for most of the rare

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earth mineral production in the world

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for several years. Through the 1980s,

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the production of rare earth elements

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was rather low. In 1980, there

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was only about 30 ,000 metric

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tons of rare earth elements produced

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worldwide from mining operations, with about

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half that coming from the United

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States. Then, in the

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1980s, Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping made

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what was in hindsight a

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brilliant decision. He made the production

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and processing of rare earth

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minerals a priority for China. As

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he noted in 1992, quote,

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The Middle East has oil, China

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has rare earths. That there

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was going to be a massive increase in

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demand for rare earth elements was a

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pretty easy prediction. Even in the 80s and

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90s, more and more technologies were finding uses

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for rare earth elements. Chinese

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production began expanding dramatically throughout the

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1990s, and U .S. production began

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to decline. By 2010, worldwide production

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was at 130 ,000 metric tons per

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year, and China's share of the

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global market was over 97%. While

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China had a near monopoly on

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rare earth element production, it wasn't

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because China had all the rare

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earth elements. China certainly does have

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a lot of them, but it's

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estimated they only have about a

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third of the world's reserves. The

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reason why their share of the global market

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was so great had more to do with

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prices than with the number of rare earth

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elements available. China was able

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to undercut global prices, which drove

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many non -Chinese producers bankrupt, including the

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Mountain Pass Mine in California. However,

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global demand for rare earth metals

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hasn't decreased. Since 2010, global production

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has almost doubled, but production in

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China has remained somewhat flat. They

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are still the largest producer in

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the world by a wide margin.

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but now other countries have been

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ramping up their own production. Demand

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for rare -earth elements will probably

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increase even faster in the

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not -so -distant future. Electric cars are

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heavily dependent on rare -earths. Electric

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motors require their use for

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magnets. A Toyota Prius has about

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25 pounds, or 10 kilograms,

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of lanthanum. Likewise, generators and

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windmills need rare -earth metals, as do

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solar panels and even the magnets in

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nuclear fusion reactors. While the

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world isn't running out of rare

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earth metals, many companies are working

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on alternative technologies which eliminate or

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reduce the amount of rare earth

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elements required. However, it's impossible to

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totally eliminate them. Likewise,

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nations are starting to explore for more

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rare earth elements. The United States, Australia,

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Canada, South Africa, and many other countries

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have begun searching for more rare earth

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deposits. It can be difficult to do

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because you can't just look for ore

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sticking out of the ground like you

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might for other metals. The Mountain Pass

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mine in California was considered good because

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it had a whopping 0 .1 % europium,

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and the best mine in the world

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is one in China which has a

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whopping 0 .2%. A massive fine was made

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in Afghanistan back in 2011, but so

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far it hasn't been possible to begin

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mining, and it isn't even known if

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it will begin anytime soon. The United

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States military has been trying to stockpile

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strategic reserves of rare earth metals. It's

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been said the total U .S. reserves

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could fit in a suitcase. This

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has included reopening the Mountain Pass

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mine in California, which was mothballed

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in 2015. Another program

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has been increasing the recycling of rare

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earth metals. Because they're elements, they

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can be efficiently recycled. As old electric

10:29

cars and other electronics become retired,

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this will become more and more important

10:33

as it will recover more and

10:36

more rare earth elements. In

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the very distant future, it might even be

10:40

entirely possible to find some of these elements

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on asteroids or even on the moon. These

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strange elements with funny names have

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become vital to our modern world and

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will become even more important in

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the not -so -distant future. The elements, which

10:53

were once novelties less than a

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century ago, now have become indispensable. The

11:01

executive producer of Everything Everywhere Daily

11:03

is Charles Daniel. The associate producers are

11:05

Austin Oakton and Cameron Kiefer. I

11:07

want to thank everyone who supports the

11:10

show over on Patreon. Your support

11:12

helps make this podcast possible. I'd

11:14

also like to thank all the members of the

11:16

Everything Everywhere community who are active on the Facebook

11:18

group and the Discord server. If you'd like to

11:20

join in the discussion, there are links to both

11:22

in the show notes. And as

11:24

always, if you leave a review or send me

11:26

a boostagram, you too can have it right on

11:29

the show.