U.S. Sitting on Mother Load of Rare Tech-Crucial Minerals.

China supplies most of the rare earth minerals found in technologies such as hybrid cars, wind turbines, computer hard drives and cell phones, but the U.S. has its own largely untapped reserves that could safeguard future tech innovations.

A company called U.S. Rare Earths holds the only known U.S. deposits of heavy rare earths, according to a report by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).

Light rare earth include the minerals ranging from lanthanum to gadolinium, while heavy rare earths range from terbium to lutetium.

"There is already a shortage, because there are companies that already can't get enough materials," said Jim Hedrick, a former USGS rare earth specialist. "No one's trying to expand their use of rare earths because they know there's not more available."

Recent USGS figures estimate that the U.S. holds rare earth ore reserves of up to 13 million metric tons. By contrast, the entire world produced just 124,000 metric tons in 2009 - but it would take both time and money for the U.S. to become self-sufficient in producing rare earths.

Only China currently has the equipment to process rare earths. USGS specialist said that such a plant requires thousands of stainless steel tanks holding different chemical solutions to separate out all individual rare earths.

The upfront costs seem daunting. Hedrick estimated that opening one mine and building a new separation plant might cost anywhere from $500 million to $1 billion and would require a minimum of eight years.

China's state-owned mines keep rare earth prices artificially low. But if U.S. companies do not begin mining American rare earth deposits soon, they may be left scrambling if China does one day stop exporting rare earths.

But Cowle, the CEO of U.S. Rare Earths, seem hopeful that momentum has already begun building for the U.S. government to encourage development of its own rare earths deposits.

"From what I see, security of supply is going to be more important than the price," Cowle said.

Source: Jeremy Hsu, TechNewsDaily Contributor