Anatomy of an AI System Map: Rare Earth Elements (REE) exploitation

In The Elements of Power, David S. Abraham describes the invisible networks of rare metals traders in global electronics supply chains: “The network to get rare metals from the mine to your laptop travels through a murky network of traders, processors, and component manufacturers. Traders are the middlemen who do more than buy and sell rare metals: they help to regulate information and are the hidden link that helps in navigating the network between metals plants and the components in our laptops.”

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‘Since 1980, mining companies have produced four times the amount of many, if not all, rare metals compared to the amount they produced from the beginning of time until 1980.’

—David Abraham, “Elements – and minerals – of power in our Internet economy,” Green Biz, 5 Dec 2015.

On average, a 21st century citizen uses ten times more minerals than one of the 20th century.

In a single Iphone there is about 75 elements: two-thirds of the periodic table.