Not an expert on this area at all, but saw a recent article that made me immediately think back to my stockpiles of tailings in Eco and thought this could be a cool suggestion for the game if explored further!
Rare earth elements (REE) have been extracted from tailings. After processing, REE can be used for many industrial applications including electronics, aerospace, and clean energy/green tech such as permanent magnets (like those used in wind turbines and electric vehicle motors). I've seen some comments in the past from players who want larger stockpile sizes to accommodate tailings, but perhaps instead this could be a (costly) additional processing step to decrease the amount of tailings needing to be stockpiled with a reward of (few) elements for tech and green tech.
Unsure if this is something that'd be interesting to explore for the Strange Loop team, but I'll also include some articles below.
Not an expert on this area at all, but saw a recent article that made me immediately think back to my stockpiles of tailings in Eco and thought this could be a cool suggestion for the game if explored further!
Rare earth elements (REE) have been extracted from tailings. After processing, REE can be used for many industrial applications including electronics, aerospace, and clean energy/green tech such as permanent magnets (like those used in wind turbines and electric vehicle motors). I've seen some comments in the past from players who want larger stockpile sizes to accommodate tailings, but perhaps instead this could be a (costly) additional processing step to decrease the amount of tailings needing to be stockpiled with a reward of (few) elements for tech and green tech.
Unsure if this is something that'd be interesting to explore for the Strange Loop team, but I'll also include some articles below.
Echeverry-Vargas, L. (2022). Recovery of rare earth elements from mining tailings: A case study for generating wealth from waste. Minerals, 12(8), 948. DOI: 10.3390/min12080948
Wang, G., Xu, J., Ran, L. et al. (2022). A green and efficient technology to recover rare earth elements from weathering crusts. Nature Sustainability. DOI: 10.1038/s41893-022-00989-3
Fleming, P., Orrego, P., & Pinilla, F. (2021). Recovery of rare earth elements present in mining tails, by leaching with nitric and hydrochloric solutions. World Journal of Nuclear Science and Technology, 11(1). DOI: 10.4236/wjnst.2021.111001
Thank you for your time (and the wonderful game)!