Mining magnets: Arctic island finds green power can be a curse A very good read.
This one paragraph kind of sums up where we're currently at:
The metals are abundant globally, but processing them is difficult and dirty - so much so that the United States, which used to dominate production, surrendered that position to China about 20 years ago. ... See more
In the tenth century, Erik the Red, a Viking from Iceland, was so impressed with the vegetation on another Arctic island he had found he called it "the green land." Today, it's Greenland's rocks that are attracting outsiders - superpowers riding a green revolution. ... See more