1
Title of the article: Reflections on the advantages and disadvantages of the extraction of Rare Earths [REE] by Luigi Franco, LAMANNA (*)
After having made a brief and provocative analysis, through my two previous articles, entitled, the first "The future miners of the earth's subsoil" and the second "Extraction of rare earths from the seabed marine", in which I wanted to express need for a new progress or a new "green" transition, so that our current contemporary culture, the one that has brought us today to a point of no return, is the result of a very specific geopolitical strategy, rather than an actual technical need-scientific, as many continue to want us to believe, riding the wave of the Swedish activist [Greta Thunberg] for sustainable development and against climate change.
Photo 1 – Open pit mine
Today, the geopolitical strategy of the "green" transition has become the most powerful weapon, where the laws of the market, on the protection of health and the environment, until 30 years ago, were absolutely unknown topics while, lately, on this topic, a new attempt at scientific and disciplinary requalification is underway. In today's reality, market laws are used to get their hands on those particular minerals, which have become very precious, but cannot be found in their natural state, made up of 15 chemical elements called "Rare Earths" [whose acronym is REE (Rare Earth Elements )] with atomic numbers ranging from 57 to 71 (the lanthanides), plus scandium and yttrium [and become 17]. Remember that these particular metals exhibit certain fluorescent, magnetic or conductive properties that make them suitable for use in components for the high-tech sector, such as permanent magnets, catalysts, rechargeable batteries and LED lights and displays. I remind those who have no scientific knowledge that chemical elements are divided into two blocks: Light Rare Earths [whose acronym is LREE] which are: Lanthanum, Cerium, Praseodymium, Neodymium, Samarium, Europium and Gadolinium, and Heavy Rare Earths [whose acronym is HREE] which are: Yttrium, terbium, Dysprosium, Holmium, Erbium, Thulium, Ytterbium and Lutetium. I would like to point out to those few who are not aware that many of the Rare Earths [REE] are radioactive [or that they can even become radioactive during processing] and this makes them dangerous for humans and the environment (therefore subject to specific disposal regulations) during the techniques of separation [1], purification [2] and recovery of the portion of raw materials of interest for the market.