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A comment on VW announces $84B investment in electric cars and batteries. Parent comment

Re:VW announces $84B investment in electric cars and batteries by rawfan on Tuesday September 12, 2017 @04:27AM (#15225702)
The only rare earths mine in the US was shut down because of environmental problems. After that no owner was profitable producing REE because of environmental standards to keep up. That was until 2007 when China restricted REE exports. Now that China exports again, the current owner is broke once again (maybe it's already sold, I'm not sure).

While other industries can/could successfully be pressured to move to sustainable, fair and environmentally conscious production, the Chinese REE production, as a monopoly, just doesn't care.

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Re:VW announces $84B investment in electric cars and batteries by Brakenshire on Tuesday September 12, 2017 @05:40AM (#15225969)
Yes, it's a problem from our end. I would support some policy mechanisms to support mining in a way which was environmentally sound and reliable.
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