[defrost]

As a point of order, and especially with most (not all) rare earth elements it's not the

> unregulated mining in poor developing countries

that's the worst part of the chain, it's the processing of concentrates.

With, say, lithium for batteries a great deal of the mining takes place in Australia and that mining produces a spodumene concentrate which is shipped onwards for processing - which creates acid lakes in holding dams and low level radioactive waste as a by product.

This has recently occured on location in countries such as China and Malaysia :

https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/economics/article/3242368/mal...

https://apnews.com/article/malaysia-australia-mining-lynas-r...

but has recently expanded to locations in Australia and (soon) Texas and other US states.