From Coal, A New Source Of Rare Earth Elements — But Also A New Identified Risk To The Population! Science Trends

Olivier Pourret (1)

1 AGHYLE - Agro-écologie, Hydrogéochimie, Milieux et Ressources

Rare earth elements (REE) have become a highly valuable commodity due to their increased use in emerging technology applications. The future exploitation of areas with high REE contents will play a strategic geopolitical role around the world (see previous article). The progressing activity in opening new mining areas will contribute to increased REE mobility and will influence the fate of these elements in the environment over the next decades. In order to monitor the respective contribution of mining activity, it will be crucial to establish a toxicity threshold in these areas.

Domaines: Planète et Univers [physics]

Olivier Pourret. From Coal, A New Source Of Rare Earth Elements — But Also A New Identified Risk To The Population! Science Trends. 2018, ⟨10.31988/SciTrends.24079⟩. ⟨hal-03690093⟩