It emerged from the duality of the mud. Before the sun hardened the soil, something sprouted from the clay: AdamYes, Adam, whose etymological origin (and the pun is intended) is found in Hebrew, referring to humanity, man. But the term Adam is also associated with adamah, which evokes earth, soil.
Thus, the word Adam may suggest that the primordial human being, or humanity itself, came from the womb of the Earth, from the soil and its variants such as mud and laterite, which refers to a mixture of gravel, sand, and clay. But behold, with the coming of dawn, there is an intense glow among the gravel. A glow that has shone for more than a thousand years before Christ in the Black Sea region, now Georgia, where humans used a certain type of trough, covered with sheep's wool, to separate gold from the gravel. It is said that this is where the legend of the Golden Fleece was born, the magical fleece of the even more magical sheep: Chrysomallus.
One possible interpretation of the legend lies in the possibility that the skin's oiliness contributed to the absorption of the metal, given its hydrophobicity. Legend or reality, the fact is that dawn and gold (aurumThe word has the same Indo-European etymological root that refers to shining, which is also found in the mythological ram associated with the Greek. chrysosbrightness, while mallós Wool, sheep. In short. The fascination with gold has spanned eras, as the ancient Egyptian civilization considered it the perfect metal, while in the Americas, the Aztecs and Mayans knew it and recognized its value.
In the Middle Ages, transmuting any metal into gold was one of the goals of alchemists who, to separate either gold from fool's gold, used mercury due to the ease of amalgamation. And not only in the Middle Ages, as the use of mercury in gold mining crossed oceans, reaching the Madeira River basin in the 1990s, greatly aggravating the environmental problem, in addition to exposing the riverside community to mental alterations and nephrotoxicity. But humankind is obsessed with Chrysomalo's skin and the search within the Earth.
At the beginning of the 21st century, there was a certain clamor in Brazil regarding niobium, an element close to magic that would solve everything due to its versatility, like that seen in metallic superalloys in the aerospace sector. Turning over the earth, digging through the clay to find not Adam or Eve, but anything that shines, either in dollars or in Pix. And if that clay is made up of a certain clay capable of retaining and exchanging ions, the so-called ionic clay, even better, because these clays can contain rare earth elements (REEs).
Central to the technological transformations and energy transition of this century, impacting the global economy, rare earth elements (REEs) constitute a group of chemical elements, called lanthanides, in addition to strontium and yttrium, present in electronics for the functioning of cell phone screens, televisions and satellites, as well as in the manufacture of medical equipment and lasers. Similar to niobium, the preciousness of the technological applications of REEs translates into monetary value.
While a kilogram of iron oxide costs around US$100, a kilogram of neodymium oxide is around US$1,0, terbium oxide around US$1.000, and lutetium oxide can reach US$15.000, and in its metallic form around US$300.000 per kilogram. Brazil is keeping a close eye on all this and holds the second largest world reserve of REEs (Remotely Retained Earths), which are found, for example, in the Ribeira Belt, which extends between São Paulo, Paraná and Santa Catarina.
In Cumuruxatiba, Bahia, there are deposits of monazite sands containing cerium, lanthanum, and neodymium. Both in the Poços de Caldas Alkaline Complex (MG) and in the Minaçu region (GO), there is a significant presence of neodymium, praseodymium, terbium, and dysprosium aggregated in ionic clays. These chemical elements are used in the manufacture of high-power permanent magnets, used in electric car motors and wind turbines.
Although their name implies rarity, rare earth elements (REEs) are not as scarce as they seem in the Earth's crust; however, they are found in low concentrations, and their processing is both costly and complex, since only one kilogram of rare earth elements is obtained from every thousand kilograms of ore. The challenges to making them ready for use are broad and diverse, encompassing economic, scientific, technological, and environmental viability.
REEs are not found in a pure state, making extraction, separation, purification, and metallization difficult. Besides ionic clays, these elements are mixed and encrusted within volcanic rocks. In this case, chemical attack is used to dissolve the rock, followed by repeated individual separation using expensive organic solvents until the desired purity is achieved.
Despite Brazil's enormous geological potential for rare earth elements, it cannot be content with being merely an exporter of them. commodityIn other words, it's not about being an exporter of rock, mud, or first-stage product, but presenting itself as a technological leader. In the case of mining and extraction of rare earth elements (REEs), the disasters of Mariana and Brumadinho must never be repeated. It's also important to keep in mind waste management and technology to minimize the use of reagents, or even to seek technological alternatives for separation and purification to avoid environmental impacts like that of mercury in the Amazon.
Amidst all this, I hear that asteroid 16 Psyche, located between Mars and Jupiter, is incredibly rich in iron, nickel, and gold. A certain group already envisions it with the zeal of the Argonauts, preparing to search for the skin of the idyllic Chrysolamus, or like alchemists, sending space probes to study it like a philosopher's stone. Seriously? Cerius asks me. Why don't they look in Europe? Europius questions me. Another empty promise, Promethius adds. By the way – I replied – Dysprosius told me. Erbius smiles drunkenly, while Eros and Psyche, Adam and Eve realize impossible dreams.
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