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Correspondent Kira Kay reports on a Canadian hunt for "rare earth" minerals, elements mined almost exclusively in China, that are key to emerging green technologies, cell phones, engines and other high-tech devices despite their short supply.
RAY SUAREZ: Among the deposits in Afghanistan are some called rare earths. There's now a global race to mine those rare earth elements.
Special correspondent Kira Kay reports on what that means for the U.S. and others.
KIRA KAY: From the air, the frozen landscape of Canada's Northwest Territories looks as remote as any place on Earth. But, in this vast uninhabited zone, there's a kind of 21st century gold rush under way.
After landing on the icy surface of Thor Lake...
Very nice to meet you.
CHRIS PEDERSEN, senior geologist, Avalon Rare Metals, Inc.: Indeed. Likewise.
KIRA KAY: ...I am met Chris Pedersen, a geologist with Avalon Rare Metals company. He's out here looking for some very valuable minerals he believes are under this lake.
CHRIS PEDERSEN: And those gray specks are rare earth minerals. I mean, they're very nondescript. They're not sparkling and shiny like gold or diamonds or anything. But they're -- they're just as important.
