Title:
US Mining Companies Show New Interest in Rare Earths
Description: This is
a VOA Special English Economics Report.
See text below
Text:
Today we continue our report on the group of
chemical elements known as rare earth metals. These
are mined from the earth and used to make technology
from mobile phones to missiles. The United States
once led the world in rare earths. Today China
controls almost all production. Premier Wen Jiabao
says China will not use these metals as a diplomatic
weapon. But Japan says exports meant for that
country have remained at Chinese ports as a result
of a recent dispute. The United States stopped
mining rare earths in two thousand two. Companies
blamed environmental rules and low-priced imports
from China. But now exploration is moving forward
again. Edward Cowle is president and chief executive
of a company called U.S. Rare Earths. He and his
partners gained rights to some land in the American
West about fifteen years ago. They had been
interested in thorium -- a radioactive element that
can fuel nuclear reactors but not be processed into
weapons. Mr. Cowle later found that the land also
held a lot of rare earth metals -- lately a subject
of intense interest. The company has not started
mining yet. It still has to get permits and work
with other businesses to put operations in place. Ed
Cowle says a lot of work remains. He says the
earliest that they could open the mine would be in
six to seven years. Another American company is
Molycorp. Jim Sims, the public affairs director,
says Molycorp has already begun producing three
thousand tons of rare earths a year. That makes the
United States the world's second largest producer, a
distant second. Mr. Sims says Molycorp is the
western hemisphere's only producer of rare earth
products. The company says the largest reserves of
rare earths outside of China are in its mine in
Mountain Pass, California, and in the Mount Weld
area of Australia. Jim Sims says Molycorp spends
only about ten percent on mining. The big cost is in
chemically separating the rare earths from the
minerals that carry them. He says Molycorp raised
about three hundred eighty million dollars when it
sold stock to the public for the first time in July.
The company aims to increase production to twenty
thousand tons by two thousand twelve. It says that
would more than meet current levels of demand in the
United States. For VOA Special English, I'm Mario
Ritter.
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personally reviewed this video and found it appropriate for
the news section of English Global Group. This
is a Voice of America video which covers an interesting
topic in Special English. I would appreciate some feedback from both
students and teachers about this video. You can comment in
the window below using any of a number of different services
including Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, and Hotmail.
