[beauzero]

Refining is dirty and dangerous so it has been pushed out. Used to work for a Canadian gold mine in Montana in the mid 90's. Most of the friends I graduated with went overseas for new mines or were Environmental engineers focused on cleaning up messes from the late 1800's early 1900's.

[kurthr]

Yeah, lack of regulation is actually a pretty big subsidy for large scale "rare earth" metal refining.

[defrost]

What's a few inland lakes of acid residue toxic metal soup along with tailings piles classified as low level radioactive waste between friends though?

These are still being created today, not just as a practice from the 1800's.

It is the price of technology, better to address these as we progress rather than pushing them out of mind and sight and kicking the can down the road for future generations.