antonius123
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I totally agree. Europe offshored much of it too.
It's a dirty business. Land gets permanently destroyed, rivers get polluted with horrible chemicals, toxic smoke residues from smoke stacks land in agricultural fields. People get cancer, etc.
..and for what? So somebody in Bulgaria can get a cheap phone..that they end up throwing away after 5 years in the local landfill. That was worth the tradeoff??? People really need to step back and think this out. I really don't have much sympathy for some short-life consumer product that required this level of destruction. That ore is gone and and a big hole is left in the ground for the next 1000 generations of citizens to stare and ponder "why?".
If China wants to be #1 at doing this..fine with me...go ahead full speed...dig baby dig..i'll buy that disposable phone!!
If the US needs a small mine to maintain some defense tech then sure...but let's not waste it on millions of consumer products. Maybe just buying a 20 year stockpile would be cheaper.
Good...leave the mountains alone. Sheesh!
The reluctant of dirty business is not the reason why world will need a decade to replace China's supply on gallium and germanium.
Technology is major reason. China master majority patent of REM production technology.
Another bad news is: it will be very expensive and may not economically feasible. The mining and processing of gallium and germanium is energy-intensive. Gallium and germanium are both byproducts of the mining and processing of other materials, such as bauxite and zinc ore. The mining and processing of these materials is energy-intensive, which drives up the cost of producing gallium and germanium.
Another bad news is: there is a lack of expertise in producing gallium and germanium outside of China. The production of gallium and germanium requires specialized knowledge and equipment. There is a limited pool of expertise in these areas outside of China, which drives up the cost of production.
Next bad news is: world bauxite supply is controlled by China.