As China Adjusts for “True Cost” of Rare Earths, What Does It Mean for Decarbonization?
March 21, 2017
Known as the “vitamins of industry,” rare earths refer to a cluster of minerals widely used in green technologies such as wind turbines, rechargeable batteries, and electric vehicles. Rare earth elements embedded in these products keep them light, efficient, and affordable. They’re essential to the decarbonization of the global economy envisioned in the Paris Climate Agreement, agreed to by 192 countries in 2015.
At the Baiyun Obo Rare Earths Mine in Inner Mongolia, for example,more than 70,000 tons of radioactive thoriumare stored in the largest rare earths slurry lake in the world. The mine and processing factory have operated in the area since 1958, and villagers living in areas surrounding the lake have seen crops and animals die over the decades. Since the 2000s, local news media began to report several cases of “cancer villages” and the lake was described as a “time bomb” hanging over the nearby Yellow River, one of China’s most critical waterways.
