SCOUTING REPORT | Mining rare earth elements, preserving Dignity, voice of the Vikings, starving penguins

A weekly digest of interesting local, state, national and even international developments

Rare earth elements are essential to modern life, used in electronics that power the world. They are essential for national security, a reason China has reportedly been trying to corner them on the global market.

There are deposits of rare earth materials in various parts of our country with differing restrictions and regulations around extracting them.

But two South Dakota Mines professors might have revolutionized how they are exploited, developing a new extraction method using coal mine waste. As a team, Venkataramana Gadhamshetty and Purushotham Tukkaraja have been working with Wyoming coal mines, successfully using their technique to develop extract yttrium, dysprosium, erbium, ytterbium and gadolinium.