Rare Earth Minerals

Mining tailings are the waste byproduct of mining, consisting of ground rock, water, and processing chemicals that remain after extracting valuable minerals. They have been disposed of for thousands of years, but the industrial mining in the late 19th and 20th centuries is responsible for most of what occupies large, engineered dams. Estimates are that there are over 8,000 active and inactive tailings facilities storing nearly 220 billion cubic meters of material. They pose many environmental dangers, some catastrophic in nature.