Interesting will this become a political football!!

snip~
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Across the West, early miners digging for gold, silver and copper had no idea that one day something else very valuable would be buried in the piles of dirt and rocks they tossed aside.

There's a rush in the U.S. to find key components of cellphones, televisions, weapons systems, wind turbines, MRI machines and the regenerative brakes in hybrid cars, and old mine tailings piles just might be the answer. They may contain a group of versatile minerals the periodic table called rare earth elements.

"Uncle Sam could be sitting on a gold mine," said Larry Meinert, director of the mineral resource program for the U.S. Geological Survey in Reston, Va.


more @
http://xfinity.comcast.net/articles/news-technology/20130721/US--Mine.Tailings.Discoveries/

They will need a lot of luck, much of the tailings are considered historic and off limits.
I know, first they shut them down, now the idiots want to protect them.
Gotta luv the liberal thought process, if you can call it that.

lol  as I said it will be come a political football.