From a mine to an iPhone

There is a long way to go between finding a rare earths deposit and using it in iPhone. For instance, the rare earths reserve of Lynas lies in Mount Weld on the desert of western Australia. They have to be shipped to Fremantle, a port on the west coast of Australia first, then travel through the India Ocean to Kuantan in northern Malyasia, where they will be processed and refined.

Right now 2,500 construction workers are working on the project, which will be the first rare earth ore processing plant outside China in nearly three decades. Lynas is spending $230 million on it, according to the New York Times.

Cost is the main reason for the 2,500 miles trip of the ores, which are radioactive. The construction and operation cost in Australia would be four times as much as it is in Malaysia, the report cited Nicholas Curtis, Lyna’s executive chairman, as saying.

The NYT also ran a story on another rare earth refinery: the one Bukit Merah of Malaysia, operated by the Mitusubishi Chemical, is now one of Asia’s largest radioactive waste cleanup sites.

Link for the NYT story is: Taking a Risk for Rare Earths

View rare earths in Asia in a larger map