Rare Earth Metal Mining in China

It's not easy to get pure forms of the rare earth elements, simply because they are most often found as oxides. They can be mixed in with thorium and I believe uranium. You have to figure out how you're going to store and or dispose of that radioactive material. How do you separate the the rare earth metals in a reasonably safe way? Ultimately what this can mean to you as a consumer is that the electronics that you purchase today could end up being way more expensive down the road once we start hitting these these limits with the these metals.