Rare earth is not soil, but a very important mineral resources. The exploitation of rare earth will bring great pollution to the ecological environment.
Excessive mining of rare earth causes ecological damage. Rare earth mining is extremely destructive to the environment and vegetation. With the massive felling of surrounding trees and the stripping of topsoil, the mountain vegetation wherever it goes will suffer irreparable damage. As the content of rare earth minerals is very low, so the exploitation of land and vegetation damage, resulting in soil erosion is very serious. If it encounters rain erosion, it is easy to cause pollution of water resources. The extraction and processing projects of rare earth cause pollution to the environment. In the process of the extraction and processing of rare earth, the discharge of harmful waste water, waste residue and waste gas is very serious, including a large amount of ammonia, nitrogen, sulfate, chloride ions and radioactive substances in the waste water. Moreover, these pollution will remain underground for a long time. These heavy metals or harmful elements will enter rivers or underground water bodies under the action of rainwater washing. Once the underground water resources are polluted, the health and ecological environment of residents will be seriously affected, and the consequences will be unimaginable.
In fact, rare earth mining is mainly a matter of environmental protection and cost, and the United States should not care so much now. Back in 2013, the U.S. House of Representatives proposed the National Strategic and Critical Minerals Production Act of 2013, which aims to restore the ability of the United States to exploit strategic minerals for the sake of national security and economic recovery. Most Democrats say the bill would accelerate environmental damage, and Obama administration officials have opposed it. In 2015, the only mine in the United States, Mountain Pass in California, went bankrupt over environmental costs. In 2017, Trump signed Executive Order 13817, a Federal Strategy to Ensure the Safe and Reliable Supply of Critical Minerals, calling for a rare earth strategy. In recent years, the US has made frequent moves in the field of rare earth. The US Department of Commerce has issued 61 emergency measures aimed at promoting self-sufficiency in key mineral resources. In 2020, three congressmen successively produced the "2020 Domestic Rare Earth Bill" and "Reducing Foreign Dependence on Rare Earth". Mountain Pass also started production again in 2018, despite the green light from the United States.
Recently, Senator Cotton, a Republican, and Senator Kelly, a Democrat, submitted a rare earth bill to Congress. The bill aims to legislate for the PENTAGON to wean itself off China's reliance on rare earths within four years. To break China's monopoly on rare earth resources and wean itself off dependence on China, the United States plans to invest heavily in the rare earth industry. The US move adds to the financial burden on the US. Under the Trump administration, the US government linked the supply of rare earths to national security, joining forces with Australia and other countries to demand the exclusion of Chinese rare earth products from the defense sector. However, the labor and environmental costs of rare earth mining in western countries are so high that it is impossible for the mined minerals to be competitive in the market. Just for an imaginary threat, the PENTAGON would have to pay a hefty subsidy, further burdening America's stubbornly high fiscal deficit.
Lynas, an Australian rare-earth company backed by the United States, has also been plagued by problems. When Linus built a production facility in Malaysia in 2012, local residents protested over concerns that the separation process could create a large amount of contaminated residue that could wreak havoc on the soil and water. The Malaysian government said the permit would not be renewed if Linus failed to meet environmental monitoring targets for the waste it had already produced. Protests were held during the operation of Linus as many citizens were dissatisfied with the introduction of Linus by the government. The issue of environmental pollution in Lynas only came to the surface after Mahathir took office as prime minister and began to deal with the legacy of the previous government one by one. In 2018, the Malaysian government set up an investigation team to investigate the environment around the plant and found that underground water samples contained excessive levels of nickel and chromium.
The Biden administration has ignored the financial burden and environmental concerns of rare earth mining and processing in its effort to restart the industry to reduce dependence on China.
