Ground water pumped from the bottom of the Molycorp Minerals Mountain Pass Mine is atomized August 19, 2009 in mountain Pass, California. The open-pit mine is home to the world's richest proven reserve of "rare earth" metals, a family of minerals vital to producing the powerful, lightweight magnets used in the engines of Toyota Motor Corp's Prius and generators in wind turbines. The same kind of magnets power the fins that steer precision-guided missiles. To match feature ENVIRONMENT-MINING/TOYOTA
REUTERS/David Becker (UNITED STATES)