VOA慢速英语2010年-Economics Report - US Mining Companies

This is the VOA Special English Economics Report.

Today we continue our report on the group of chemical elements known as rare earth metals. These are mined from the earth and used to make technology from mobile phones to missiles.

The United States once led the world in rare earths. Today China controls almost all production. Premier¹ Wen Jiabao says China will not use these metals as a diplomatic weapon. But Japan says exports meant for that country have remained at Chinese ports as a result of a recent dispute.

The United States stopped mining rare earths in two thousand two. Companies blamed environmental rules and low-priced imports from China. But now exploration is moving forward again.

Edward Cowle is president and chief executive of a company called U.S. Rare Earths. He and his partners gained rights to some land in the American West about fifteen years ago. They had been interested in thorium -- a radioactive element that can fuel nuclear reactors² but not be processed into weapons.

Mr. Cowle later found that the land also held a lot of rare earth metals -- lately a subject of intense interest.

The area near Molycorp's rare earths mine in Mountain Pass, California

EDWARD COWLE: "In these two years since we changed our name to Rare Earths, the media attention has been unbelievable."

The company has not started mining yet. It still has to get permits and work with other businesses to put operations in place. Ed Cowle says a lot of work remains³.

EDWARD COWLE: "I would say conservatively the earliest that we could open the mine has to be six to seven years."

Another American company is Molycorp. Jim Sims, the public affairs director, says Molycorp has already begun producing three thousand tons of rare earths a year. That makes the United States the world's second largest producer, a distant second.

JIM SIMS: "Molycorp is the western hemisphere's only producer of rare earth products.”

The mineral bastnasite can contain 15 or even 17 rare earth metals. But chemically separating the elements is costly⁴ and difficult

Molycorp says the largest reserves of rare earths outside of China are in its mine in Mountain Pass, California, and in the Mount Weld area of Australia.

Jim Sims says Molycorp spends only about ten percent on mining. The big cost is in chemically separating the rare earths from the minerals that carry them.

JIM SIMS: "Every rare earth deposit on the planet has all fifteen and sometimes all seventeen rare earths."

He says Molycorp raised about three hundred eighty million dollars when it sold stock to the public for the first time in July. The company aims to increase production to twenty thousand tons by two thousand twelve. It says that would more than meet current levels of demand in the United States.

And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Mario Ritter. I'm Jim Tedder
 

1 premier   

adj.首要的；n.总理，首相

参考例句：

• The Irish Premier is paying an official visit to Britain.爱尔兰总理正在对英国进行正式访问。
• He requested that the premier grant him an internview.他要求那位总理接见他一次。

2 reactors   

起反应的人( reactor的名词复数 )； 反应装置； 原子炉； 核反应堆

参考例句：

• The TMI nuclear facility has two reactors. 三哩岛核设施有两个反应堆。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法
• The earliest production reactors necessarily used normal uranium as fuel. 最早为生产用的反应堆，必须使用普通铀作为燃料。

3 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

4 costly   

adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的

参考例句：

• It must be very costly to keep up a house like this.维修这么一幢房子一定很昂贵。
• This dictionary is very useful,only it is a bit costly.这本词典很有用，左不过贵了些。