Check my understanding here: It’s not that they’re scarce, but there’s no geological process that concentrates them like copper or gold. There aren’t any neodymium seams the way there are gold seams, there’s a very little amount everywhere. So you might as well sift the entire Mojave.
They are not nearly as rare as the name implies.
captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works 6 days ago
DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social 6 days ago
Yeah there’s a reason people were saber rattling over those offshore deposits Japan claimed, and it’s not because undersea mining is cheap and efficient or “they’re on every continent what’s the big deal”
meliaesc@lemmy.world 6 days ago
Finding the labor to mine and process it cheaply enough to maintain profit margins, while simultaneously deporting everyone, is what makes things rare.
jayandp@sh.itjust.works 1 week ago
The rarity is the ability to do it without caring about the massive environmental damage often caused while procuring the minerals.