Boom in Rare Earth Mining Poses Mounting Toxic Risks

Gabby Carlini

“Boom in Mining Rare Earths Poses Mounting Toxic Risks.” Yale E360, e360.yale.edu/features/boom_in_mining_rare_earths_poses_mounting_toxic_risks.

1. I already knew that the waste byproducts from mining pose environmental threats, and that overseas mining is not nearly as closely regulated as mining in the United States, meaning that local communities are often severely affected by the environmental impacts. I also knew that the market for rare earth elements in industries such as electronics has created a massive global demand for these materials.
2. I learned that rare earth elements are actually very common in the environment, but are called "rare" due to the difficulty of extracting them. The chemical byproducts of mining these elements are not only toxic to the environment, but radioactive, meaning that mining companies have almost no way of safely dispose of them. In countries like China, where rare earth mining has been prevalent for decades, local communities are beginning to suffer from the effects of radioactive chemicals leaching into the groundwater and soil. While many mining companies assured locals that the chemicals were safely contained in a reservoir, monsoons and heavy flooding have resulted in runoff into nearby soil.
3. This is relevant because it addresses the issue of wealthier countries essentially "shipping off" ecological damage to poorer countries in an effort to get around environmental regulations and higher taxes. In addition to the local communities being harmed by the byproducts of rare earth mining, they also receive little payback due to the fact that the elements being mined are used to build high-end electronics, which typically only have a market in developed countries.
4. While this is a concerning issue, I wish that the article had delved farther into the actual scientific research behind what's happening in these environments, or explored the economic reasons why this is happening in the first place. The article was a good general overview of the situation, but lacked a foundation in strong scientific research that would have really made the case.