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Pipes coming from a rare earth smelting plant spew polluted water into a vast tailings dam near Xinguang Village, located on the outskirts of the city of Baotou in China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in this October 31, 2010 picture. The massive Baogang corporation, located on the outskirts of Baotou city, churns out rare earth metals on a vast scale, and villagers living near the smelting plants and a vast tailings dam used to dump the black refuse from ore processing said the rare earths boom was threatening their livelihood and health. Air and water toxins from the plants and dam were poisoning them, their water, crops and children, they said. China supplies 97 percent of rare earths used worldwide, and they go into magnets, bearings and high-tech components that go into computers, vehicles and, increasingly, clean energy technology such as wind turbines and hybrid cars. (Photo by David Gray/Reuters)
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