Dysprosium

In arid southeastern California, just across the border from Nevada, sits the only large-scale rare-earth element mine in the Western Hemisphere. Here at Mountain Pass, rocks are dug out of a 600-foot pit in the ground, crushed, and liquified into a concentrated soup of metals that are essential for the magnets inside consumer electronics, wind turbines, and electric vehicles, or EVs.What Is Carbon Capture? With Gizmodo’s Molly Taft | TechmodoToday, that metallic soup is shipped to China, where individual rare earths are…

Spitsbergen, Svalbard Islands, Norway. Photo: Sergio Pitamitz / VWPics (AP)A recent study from the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate found large amounts of valuable metals and minerals on the seabed of the country’s continental shelf, Reuters reported. The rare earth metals, copper, and other materials would be a boon to Europe’s ability to produce energy transition technologies, but environmentalists are worried about the potential impacts of mining in the area.The Directorate’s study found that there were more than 40…