Rare earth elements include Scandium, Yttrium, and the collection of elements with atomic numbers from 57-71: also known as the lanthanides. While their names are probably pretty unfamiliar to many--Prasiodymium, Promethium, Samarium, etc--their use has been increasing and their interesting magnetic and chemicals are increasingly exploited in high technology applications.
There has been some news recently about the global supply of these elements. While we have deposits of them in the U.S., recent supplies have been coming out of China. Until really recently, that is, since there have been issues with supply and allegations of price controlling.
Now the New York Times reports on another potential source of these elements. Manganese nodules on the surface of the ocean apparently contain not only valuable copper in significant amounts, but also rare earths. If the combined value of the materials in these rocks makes the economics work out, maybe people will start mining the sea floor for them.
Somewhere deep in the article the author mentions that the concentration of copper in the ore mined in the San Jose copper and gold mine in Chile (you know the one) is only half that of these nodules, which contain a paltry 1% copper.
That leaves me wondering why someone doesn't just collect all the pennies I have accumulated over the years and extract the copper from them. They're surely more than 1% Cu and it would be easy to get hold of them.
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