• mrmule@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      If you’ve been to Greenland it you’ll realize how inaccessible these mineral deposits are. And with no roads connecting towns it becomes a logistical nightmare. Oh and the place is covered in thick ice and snow for 10 months of the year. There have been mining companies dying there for the last 50 years, 1. Because of legislation and 2 because it’s virtually impossible to mine.

      • mke@programming.dev
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        2 days ago

        I’ve seen jokes(?) that they’re aiming high, as in, aiming for high global temperatures to handle the ice. Stupidity wouldn’t describe it, it’d be insanity… But isn’t that what this administration is all about?

      • 👍Maximum Derek👍@discuss.tchncs.de
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        1 day ago

        Oh. That’s why China was fighting so hard to buy the Tanbreez site during the last administration and why the US had to exert soft power on 4 different countries to buy it out from under them.

    • ShittyBeatlesFCPres@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      The U.S. has a surprising amount of known rare earth deposits but the deposits aren’t really being explored extensively, much less mined because of economic reasons. The U.S. has the 4th largest lithium deposits, for example, but to mine it wouldn’t be competitive.

      A mean, a year ago, I would have said, it’s just cheaper to buy them on global markets than mine them in California. But we’ll see how broke these tariffs make us. We might all have lithium lung and be paid in company scrip again in 15 years.

    • Lit@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      Who is going to process them, though ? The problem is processing them.