USGS report on rare earths (REE)

Read this USGS report.....

The Principal Rare Earth Elements Deposits of the U.S. - A Summary of Domestic Deposits and a Global Perspective 

The Principal Rare Earth Elements Deposits of the U.S. - A Summary of Domestic Deposits and a Global Perspective News release: "USGS: America Has Abundant Supply of Rare Earth Elements - America’s Rare Earth Elements Can Create U.S. Jobs, Expand Renewable Energy: "On the heels of a Wall Street Journal report outlining America’s dependence on China’s tightening rare earth element (REE) market, the USGS released a report revealing 13 million metric tons of REEs exist within known deposits in 14 U.S. states. While the largest deposits exist in California, Alaska and Wyoming, additional known REE deposits are found in Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, and South Carolina."

....by clicking through to here. The link in the text next to the dot downloads the 5Mb PDF document.

Bidding Afghanistan up

After the silliness noted earlier this week about the one trillion dollars worth of mineral suddenly discovered in Afghanistan, this morning brought an extra side order of VerySilly. AP reports that the minerals found lying around there are now worth THREE TRILLION, so it must be worth all those deaths and continuing with an unwinnable war, right?

It really makes you wonder just how stupid a) the US military is and b) how stupid the US military thinks the world is. Meanwhile, this humble scribe loved the breathless bit about how the Afghan officials are off to London next week to pitch the iron ore deposits to the Brits. After all, it was a Brit who found them in the first place.....169 years ago. Here's a quote:

"The quality of the ore is excellent, and the richest varieties are to be found," a surveyor wrote in a report on Afghanistan’s untapped natural resources.

The surveyor was one Captain Drummond, a British officer in the 3rd Light Cavalry. The year? 1841.

It's gonna be big news to the limeys, for sure. Meanwhile, if The Hawaiian really wants to know about the mineral wealth of Afghanistan, he should stop listening to the USGS and phone up Hunter Dickinson and ask them all about it. After all, it was HD who got kicked out of the country when the Chinese muscled in on the copper there.