Japan finds Rare Earth deposits. New jobs for out of work Oilmen?

Hawaii, get ready for a few extra people hitting your ports for Rest and Relaxation. You’ve always been a great R&R port for our Service Men and Women operating in the Western Pacific, and now you may be entertaining mining crews.

If the following article is accurate, there is hope that this deposit could produce Rare Earth at less cost than the Chinese can make it!  And here’s some possibilities…

Obama dealt a serious blow to the oil people when he shut down the gulf to oil exploration and well drilling, some of these specialized ships might be available and easily converted for the express purpose of transporting this mud to a ship, sorting out the rare earth metals, and safely returning the mud to the sea floor via a down pipe and gravity.

Seems to me that out of work oil platform workers would make excellent candidates for mining these materials, as they would need far less training… the USA could have the equipment and crews ready to mine it soonest.

Considering the EPA’s rules, it’s possible that the California mine is already doomed to failure as far as profitability, I’d bet that’s exactly what the Chinese think.  As the article mentions, there’s lots of stuff to sort out, and for all we know there are tons of discharge that might have to be put in 55 gallon barrels and shipped to a hazzard site for all we know.  Mining Rare Earth from mud that contains far less toxic waste, and outside the reach of the EPA might make it wirthwhile.. working it wet may take care of most environmental concerns too..

So here’s the article.  Japan and the USA could be the perfect partners to make this happen.. or so I think. Let’s hope these materials can be processed in time to make a difference in the current market.  You folks down South who are still looking for an oil job… would you take a job out of a Hawaii port processing mud knowing your R&R port was this good?

GB

http://old.news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110704/ts_nm/us_rareearth_japan