The Effects of Extracting Rare-earth Metals in China

The process of extracting rare-earth metals is very disruptive to the environment. The rare earth elements are mined using the open pit mining technique which involves the opening of the surface of the earth using heavy equipment and machinery. During the refining process, there are a lot of byproducts let out into the atmosphere thus polluting it. Extracting rare earth elements is a complex process that involves the use of various acids, solvents, and other chemical-based materials. There are enormous water and energy consumption during the entire process. The entire procedure can produce large amounts of waste water, waste gas and other forms of waste residue.

On February 10, 2019, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of China issued the Cleaner Production Technology Promotion Plan for the Rare Earth Industry. According to the Plan, China aims to speed up the industrial application and promotion of the process of separation of low-carbon and low-sodium free ammonia nitrogen rare earth oxide and purification technology along with finalizing the demonstration of the industrial application of rare earth magnets. This is done in order to reduce the acid-base requirement in rare-earth melting and the separation process thus improving the comprehensive use of the rare-earth resources by 2020.

The Chinese government has insisted that the relevant departments should speed up the implementation and promotion of the rare earth advanced clean production technology application for the betterment of the environment. The industrial-technological level of China, in the process of rare earth mining, smelting and separating have made prompt progress in this sector. The implementation of this plan can save 120,000 tons of hydrochloric acid, 373,000 tons of sodium hydroxide or 50,000 tons of ammonia per year. The implementation of the Cleaner Production Technology Promotion Plan for the Rare Earth Industry is a priority for the country’s government.
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Disc Technology Highlights a New Frontier

The concept isn’t new but rather formalized as an accepted scientific principle in 2007 with the Nobel Prize being awarded to a European team who discovered Magnetoresistance. The concept forms around the idea that weak changes in magnetic properties develop large variations in electrical resistance. This discovery helped with the popularization of iPods as the first true reliable and long battery lasting handheld technology the world has ever seen.

The Possibilities

The ability to create such a reaction, weak variations in magnetic properties and extreme fluctuations in electrical resistance enabled engineers to establish long play battery life cycles, internal to the hardware specifications set forth by Apple. Other digital devices soon followed suit, and the Magnetoresistance enables greater flexibility in sensitive reading tools, voice coil motors, and calibrations, reducing error potential not only in handheld entertainment platforms but also in medical procedures and prosthetics.

This unique ability allows the neo magnets tools to draw data from hard drives and other similar memory functions. The decrease in utilized power sources brought changes to miniaturization, developments that make the 80s insertion of the Sony Walkman look completely blasé and uneventful. The developments have become standard in the industry in only seven years inserting its potential into the latest pairings with rare earth magnet operations.


Establishing Physics in Everyday Real Life

The Magnetoresistance revolution has become so widespread in popular technology that the industry relies on it for its storage and generative properties. Every popular culture device of the past five years utilizes the process, and it is most grandly inserted deep into industrial technologies as well. Processing speeds have increased a hundredfold in such a short time, while layered data description has sped up to allow streaming capabilities on even the most bargain-basement laptop.

Every piece of technology relies on the process, as miniaturization is the path chosen for advancements in science.

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