The Search for Transparency in a Global Gold Rush for Tech Metals

Strategic metals are an essential ingredient of modern technologies, but poor regulationhas led to environmental ruin.

A new global gold rush is under way. Buttoday’s prospectors aren’t the fortune huntersof old, panning for precious nuggets on theAmerican frontier. They’re mining companieshoping to find lucrative deposits of technologymetals, the 17 elements vital for theproduction of smartphones, laptops, electriccars, wind turbines and other technologies.

Although these metals are abundant in the earth’s crust, they are difficult to find incommercially viable concentrations. Extracting individual elements from the hostmineral’s chemistry is a complex and energy-intensive process, involving strong acidsand other hazardous chemicals. Radioactive materials such as uranium and thorium areoften found alongside the elements, and these can end up in the “tailings” – a toxicstew of waste products from the refinement process.Read more

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