"rare earth" minerals found near Hawaii

[Bullwinkle]

http://technewscast.com/technology/tech-...-in-ipads/

could turn out to be be a huge economic boost for the state.

[Kapohocat]

The article just says "hawaii". Is it anywhere specific?

[Bullwinkle]

"The deposits are in international waters in an area stretching east and west of Hawaii, as well as east of Tahiti in French Polynesia, he said"


Some articles refer to "ocean floor near Hawaii" my first thought would be that there could be a need for port facilities,ships,docks and processing facilities - and jobs. China currently controls 97% of the worlds supply of this stuff - and electronics manufacturers have had shortages due to China hoarding it

edit=location

[PaulW]

Interesting! Here's the link to the Guardian article it references:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/201...rare-earth

"The team found that sites close to Hawaii and Tahiti were especially rich in rare earths"

[JerryCarr]

Not wanting to rain on anybody's parade, but environmental concerns don't get mentioned in the article which contains this quote:

"Sea mud can be brought up to ships and we can extract rare earths right there using simple acid leaching," he said. "Using diluted acid, the process is fast, and within a few hours we can extract 80-90% of rare earths from the mud."

Mud implies sediment will be left after processing and acid leaching implies chemical residue. Of course there may be simple and effective ways to deal with any pollution, but the article doesn't say how these two things might be dealt with.

[oink]

quote:

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Not wanting to rain on anybody's parade, but environmental concerns don't get mentioned

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True and that will be the reason we will just watch as other countries profit from mining the sea floor.

Pua`a
S. FL
Big Islander to be.

[kimo wires]

Seems to me that If the mining is done on the Leeward side of the Islands the Ocean currents would clean up any mud and silt brought up from the sea floor and carry it away from us... There is the counter current to consider
http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/sci...pr_hawaii/
but I think It would be insignificant. Just think about how much mud gets washed into the ocean when it rains. The Ocean cleans itself up pretty fast.


One Thing I can always be sure of is that things will never go as expected.

[Greg]

Our Homeowners association actually filed a claim on that particular piece of ocean floor several years ago. Any seafloor mining profits belong to us.

[JerryCarr]

Here's another more locally-oriented news story on this topic:

http://www.staradvertiser.com/news/20110...fears.html