OUTLOOK FOR RARE EARTH ELEMENTS

Efforts to find alternative REE supplies have been complicated by the pollution that rare earth mining and processing may cause. The new Lynas Corporation REE refinery in Malaysia was to have been ready for production in August 2011; it was finally granted a licence at the end of January 2012 by the government authorities but since then there has been much public opposition and dispute as the disposal plans for the thousands of tons of low-level radioactive waste the plant would produce annually are scrutinised and criticised.

Japanese companies are also finding it harder than originally hoped to recycle rare earths from electronics and to begin rare earth mining and refining in Vietnam.

The Chinese government ...

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