Short Term Trading Weekend Lounge: 25 - 27 June, page-23

Totally ignorant really when it comes to mining.

I am not particularly au fait with the seperation techniques required for rare metals although i have seen stories about some of the horror lakes around Baotou in China. So I presume they are dogged with the same tailings issues that affect most mining.
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20150402-the-worst-place-on-earth

Looking at the history of miners in this regard does not fill me with optimism despite the pressure on the bigger western miners after the Vale Bazil incident. It is not just the proliferation of small miners but also the number who liquidate without attending to remediation. Some estimates place the number of inactive and abandoned tailing dams worldwide as between 7 and 8k.

this table is sobering.https://www.wise-uranium.org/mdaf.html
As is this article https://worldminetailingsfailures.org/

No doubt their will be more technologies develpoed to deal with these issues. I once hoped that CLQ's water treatment might help. at one stage freeman was talking about using it to recover minerals from tailing dams but that appears to have fizzled. perhaps others can comment on these issues as they pertain to lithium and other rare metals. Although the issues i raise are endemic to mining rather than purely relating to the new ev revolution.

Personally i believe that Fullmoon's treating local cultures/environments with respect is a nice thought but totally at odds with the nature of man and the power imbalance that miners have in many less wealthy countries. Perhaps we should all accept less and pay more to deal with these issues, although the dominant drive seems to be cheaper stuff valued less over my lifetime.