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The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
bySavage-Rabbit ( 308260 ) writes:
If the U.S. recovered less than 1% of the germanium currently mined and processed but not recovered from U.S. mines, it would not have to import any germanium to meet industry needs.
Unfortunately this is not an option for the US because 'recovering' Germanium is just another way of saying 'recycling' and that is both 'woke' and equivalent to practicing communism. Plus, Trump doesn't like Germany much so there's that too.
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byEntrope ( 68843 ) writes:
In this context, "recovering" a metal is not a synonym for "recycling" it. It's a lot harder to do because the concentration of the metal is a lot lower, and because it's mixed in random ore rather than in some alloy that people found commercially useful.
bySavage-Rabbit ( 308260 ) writes:
In this context, "recovering" a metal is not a synonym for "recycling" it. It's a lot harder to do because the concentration of the metal is a lot lower, and because it's mixed in random ore rather than in some alloy that people found commercially useful.
Nope, It's woke communism all the way down.
bystabiesoft ( 733417 ) writes:
Is that really true though. I expect most HDD's are tossed in the dump. Well were until I think it was early this year that it became more common because the rare earths in them. Personally I've pulled apart a number to extract the head actuator mag's. They are quite powerful. In the older drives there used to be quite a bit of high grade aluminum too. Nowadays they've managed to reduce that to the bone so not so much AL in there anymore.
I just can't believe we were tossing them before though. If I can rip
byEntrope ( 68843 ) writes:
Recycling a hard drive is possible. I don't know how often it's done, but I recycle mine (after wiping them).
The suggestion in TFA is extracting rare earth elements from the tailings that are left over when mining for other metals. Those are pretty much rocks that are mostly the abundant stuff in the crust such as silicates -- rare earths are typically trace impurities rather than veins. One has to process a huge amount of those tailings to get much neodymium or whatever else. Their chemistries make it
bystabiesoft ( 733417 ) writes:
Am aware, my point was it seems like it would be easy in comparison to recycle things like drives which have a much greater "good stuff" to waste than mine tailings. The aluminum, the rare earths in the mags, and whatever else is on the pcb of value. And yet no one was until quite recently as far as I can tell. I mean the Al alone seems like a win. People collect Al drink cans and recycle them, each can weighs a fraction of the Al in a drive. Some of those older drives probably had close to a lb of Al from
byambrandt12 ( 6486220 ) writes:
The head actuator magnets make a helluva fridge magnet! Yeah, it'll hold your kid's drawing, no problem... and you could just hold a phonebook or a kid :-)
bynevermindme ( 912672 ) writes:
You are kidding, the items that are practical to be recycled and reprocessed are daily by people of all political persuasions.
Gravel, Sand, Bricks, Limestone, Concrete, Klinker, Steel, Iron, Lead, Rebar, Copper, Brass and Bronze, Water, Wood, Wood Ash, Pallets, Cardboard and Paper and PCB/components. Manure amd Sanitary Products have been liquid gold sine the beginning of farming.
All these companies that do this recycling are under assault by regulators (for sins that occured 50+ years ago), the loca
byambrandt12 ( 6486220 ) writes:
Processing a circuit board to recover the rare earth stuff and gold and stuff is a very nasty process... safer to make meth (unless a blender full of sulfuric acid sounds like a fun afternoon)
bygtall ( 79522 ) writes:
That is easily solved, just promise el Bunko a cut of the profits. You won't be able to keep him away. And if we get Putin interested, then it is a slam dunk. Extra credit for poor people who died on the way to the extraction processes.
bySavage-Rabbit ( 308260 ) writes:
That is easily solved, just promise el Bunko a cut of the profits. You won't be able to keep him away. And if we get Putin interested, then it is a slam dunk. Extra credit for poor people who died on the way to the extraction processes.
Maybe we should just rename "Germanium" to "Putinium"??
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