Cheshire Cat Photo Blog(...said the Cat: 'we're all mad here....')

No, not THAT Rare Earth….

It seems that no matter how many visits (1, 2, 3) this blog makes to the Mojave Desert, it just can’t get enough. Personally, I have been through the Mojave Desert on only one trip (1, 2) to California, many years ago, and things have not been the same, since.

What does a wind turbine have to do with the Mojave Desert?

Read on….

Molycorp Minerals is a company with rights to mine minerals that are essential for many “green” technologies. Minerals containing the “rare earth” group of elements, 17 elements in all, are used in battery electrodes and low-energy light bulbs. Dysprosium, neodymium, and lanthanum are used to produce hybrid automobiles. Neodymium is used in making batteries for hybrid and electric cars and in making permanent magnets for wind turbines. Aha!

Molycorp announced on Friday that it seeks to raise $350 million by going public on the stock market. In the S1 document that Molycorp filed with the SEC, the company said that its mining operation in Mountain Pass, California, in the Mojave Desert, is the most fully developed rare earth project outside of China.

Ah, there’s the rub! China has secured 97% of the production of rate earth minerals, “which are used in nearly every electronic device, cell phones, computer hard drives and guided missiles.”

According to a recent General Accounting Office (GAO) report:

“There is widespread use of rare earth materials in defense systems, including precision-guided munitions, lasers, communication systems, radar systems, avionics, night vision equipment, satellites and more, according to the GAO.

China has decreased output and increased export taxes on all its rare earth materials to a range of 15 to 25 percent, according to the report.”

And it’s not just the Defense Department that is concerned…. There is a kilogram (2.2 lbs.) of neodymium in the motor of every Prius and more than 10 kilograms of lanthanum in each battery.

Molycorp Minerals wants to reopen its mining operations later this year and get processing facilities operating by late 2012.

-Bill at

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