Electric cars, wind turbines, and LED lighting depend on rare earth elements (REEs), which are difficult to mine. Their extraction requires polluting leaching agents that destroy soil and groundwater.
China has monopolized the supply of these critical materials, thanks to government support, cheap labor, and lax environmental regulations. But now, a Chinese group has developed an alternative, electrokinetic mining process that sharply reduces the need for toxic chemicals.
Environmental Impacts
During the 1990s, China exploited lax environmental laws and cheap labor costs to become the world’s largest rare earth mineral supplier. These minerals are critical for a number of industrial applications, including electric cars, wind turbines, LED lighting and other electronics.
However, this aggressive growth has created a number of problems for the country’s environment and its industries. To address these concerns, China has introduced a series of environmental regulations.
One set of rules, called the Emission Standards of Pollutants in Rare Earth Industry, limits how much pollutants can be discharged by RE companies. Another, called the National Traceability System for Key Commodities, requires that rare earth mining and production firms submit their production and processing data to China’s centralized data tracking database.
These measures have helped to control pollution, but they don’t prevent it entirely. In fact, the country’s RE industry has a significant pollution problem.
To deal with this, China has consolidated its RE production facilities and developed a national strategy to control the storage of rare earth materials. The goal is to improve the industry’s compliance with environmental regulations and limit black market trading, illegal mining and pollution.
A third initiative is to increase the efficiency of rare earth mining and refining by upgrading technology and equipment. This effort, if successful, would significantly reduce the time and energy it takes to produce REs.
During the past decade, Chinese RE production has grown rapidly. Its production capacity has surpassed that of the United States and Malaysia, supplying 42.3 percent of the world’s RE exports in 2018.
While China is a major player in global rare earth markets, its production process is unsustainable. This has caused prices to spike, as it erodes China’s competitive edge and pushes foreign producers to look elsewhere for their RE needs.
In addition, it has caused environmental damage to the land where rare earths are mined and processed. These processes involve mining a raw rare earth ore, crushing it and then adding chemicals to separate the elements. This is called a “leaching pond” process and it releases toxic chemicals into the soil and groundwater.
Health Impacts
Rare earths are crucial materials used in smartphones, wind turbines and electric vehicles. But despite their importance, they are also highly toxic. This has led to a slew of environmental and health issues related to mining, smelting, and processing.
The environmental impacts of rare earth mining in China can be extremely detrimental to local communities, causing damage to water sources and air quality. In addition, the chemicals that are sprayed during mining operations can also have significant effects on human health.
In China, contaminated groundwater has been a major concern for years. As a result, the government has made significant investments in remediation efforts to clean up sites around the country.
Some of these projects involve pumping contaminants out of the groundwater and then pumping fresh water in to dilute toxin concentrations. Other projects include upgrading mine equipment to more modern, efficient technology and using more environmentally-friendly processes to extract the raw materials.
While these steps will help to reduce the environmental impact of rare earth mining, they are not yet enough to avoid serious health risks. Many rare earth mines have lingering toxins that are still leaking into groundwater and contaminating the surrounding environment.
These toxins can cause long-term negative health effects. These include chronic respiratory problems, kidney disease and cancer.
In recent years, there has been a heightened focus on the health impacts of mining. This has been influenced by social movements focused on resource nationalism and environmental activism.
The health impacts of rare earth mining have been particularly concerning in Inner Mongolia, where a mining operation ruined the health of nearby residents. People living in the area suffered from chronic respiratory illness, diabetes, and bone fractures.
Another mining project in Ganzhou, China has been cited by China Water Risk for its use of untreated chemicals in its leaching ponds. As a result, the ponds have become contaminated with heavy metals and other pollutants.
The resulting pollution has been linked to an increase in a number of diseases, including asthma and cancer. As a result, Chinese government officials have pledged to reduce the amount of chemicals in the water that is used for mining. They have also enacted stricter regulations and are planning to consolidate their rare earth industry into six state-owned companies by 2020.
Water Impacts
Rare earth elements are used in a variety of technologies, including consumer electronics, green technologies, medical devices and military hardware. They are critical for manufacturing high-end equipment, but they require a complex and highly labor intensive process to extract the metals.
In order to separate the minerals, a series of steps must be followed and a variety of solvents must be used to force the elements apart. The process requires a lot of energy and produces large amounts of waste. The result is that many countries are looking for alternative sources of rare earths.
Some of these solutions include organic molecules called ligands that have a strong thirst for metal atoms and can selectively remove one mineral from the mixture. This method of separation has proven successful for some applications, but the chemical reactions involved in this process are costly and inefficient.
The mining and separation of rare earth materials also produces a significant amount of toxic wastewater. This wastewater must be treated and disposed of carefully to avoid further environmental damage. It may contain chemicals like radioactive thorium or toxic fluorine. This pollution can be a threat to human health and can be leached out of mines into rivers and other natural waterways.
As a result, China is struggling to clean up the damage done by decades of mining and separation operations. Its environmental problems are serious and will take years to fix.
To address these challenges, Chinese officials have introduced a variety of measures to limit the impact of their mining and processing practices. These include implementing tougher regulations, increasing the efficiency of their production equipment and requiring that all new mining companies use more modern equipment.
These measures are intended to curb the harmful effects of mining and processing rare earths. However, they may not prevent all of the damage caused by years of heavy-handed mining and separation activities.
Even with the latest remediation efforts, there is still a significant amount of pollution left to tackle. As a result, Chinese leaders are looking for ways to reduce their country’s dependence on foreign mining and processing of rare earth minerals. They are also seeking to build stronger trade partnerships with their allies.
Air Impacts
In China, mining rare earth ores requires a lot of energy and creates large amounts of waste. This waste can contain toxic materials like fluorine, acids and radioactive water, which can affect human health and the environment.
The waste also includes a high concentration of heavy metals such as lead, cadmium and mercury. These substances are harmful for the human body and cause long-term degradation of the natural environment.
To avoid this, environmental groups have called for a shift in the mining process to a more environmentally friendly method. This process could include the use of more efficient equipment and more efficient methods for separating the different elements.
These changes would also reduce the waste that the current mining processes generate, allowing for more sustainable practices. However, this would require new infrastructure and a lot of investment.
One option for reducing the environmental impact of mining is to develop REE recycling programs. REE recycling, which is currently a pilot program in the European Union, can recover and reuse existing REEs to reduce the need for new mining.
Another option is to establish a domestic REE supply chain. Some countries, such as Australia and the United States, are actively seeking to diversify their REE supply chains.
In the United States, for example, the US Department of Defense recently green-lit initial funding to build a joint venture between Australian company Lynas Corporation and US-based Blue Line Corporation to develop a REE processing facility in Texas. The new facility will allow Lynas to ship rare earth ores directly from Malaysia to the United States for final processing, thereby reducing the country’s reliance on China as a source of REEs.
While it is not yet known how effective the new facility will be, the potential benefits from a domestic REE supply chain could be significant. REEs are critical for many products and technologies, including light bulbs, batteries and magnetic permanent magnets used in electric vehicles.
The Chinese government has also been implementing policies that aim to strengthen the country’s REE industry. These include increasing efficiency, limiting environmental damage and reducing illegal mining.