Water & Energy/Magnets/Rare Earth Elements/Mining

---

Neodymium is used in magnets in cars, cellphones and computers.

Lithium production requires significant volumes of water, but does the water need to be of drinking water quality? No, but it needs to be of a certain quality with relatively low concentrations of total dissolved solids, or other constituents that could scavenge the lithium and adversely affect recovery of the target metal. Lithium can be recovered from brines in surface water or groundwater, as is done in Chili, Brazil, Argentina, Australia, Argentina, and China. Brine production is coming online in Clark County Nevada, and lithium deposits are being developed by EXXON in Arkansas.

Neodymium-Iron-Boron magnets are used in high performance motors, brushless DC motors,, magnetic separation, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in the medical field, sensors, switches and loudspeakers.

The total life-cycle footprint of Greenhouse Gas Emissions (GHGs) from the production and operation of internal combustion engine cars is greater than electric cars. There is indeed a significant amount of GHGs associated with the fabrication of e-batteries, and electric cars; however, e-cars still generate less GHGs than fossil fuel-burning cars (Wall Street Journal March 22, 2021).

Copper is a critical material in home construction and many electrical applications.

Because of the need to maintain a temperature that does not exceed about 85 degrees Fahrenheit in a ~ 300,000 square foot data center that houses thousands of servers generating heat, an evaporative cooling system will use up to 1,000,000 gallons of water in a Summer day (Gander, unpublished data 2013). Much of this water can be reused over a period of days or weeks but it will dissipate through evaporation and will need replacement due to excess salts and the build up of impurities.