Anyone for Magnatite?

[chain]

A quarterly printed by Missouri Dept. of Natural Resouces has an interesting article discussing the  re-opening of the Pea Ridge mine in Washington county, Missouri that previously produced high grade iron ore for over thirty years.

[magnatite] high grade iron ore is found to have rare-earth elements used in many hi-tech applications:

yttrium..used in laser systems
samarium..used for stealth tecnology
erbium...used for fiber-optic data transmission
neodymium...from welders goggles to guidance systems
thorium...a potential energy source that could replace uranium

If we have some geologists in the forum would be interesting to hear your educated views.

[chain]

Noticed another news release, may have been on Yahoo last week of this subject, "rare earth elements." However, the recent article discussed mining companies are searching old gold mine rock residue as well as other mining residue in America that possibly holds the REEs. China supposedly has the market cornered world-wide, as usual.