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New method can pull rare earth elements from electronic waste and coal ash.. When a pulse of current goes through a tube containing coal ash, a flash of light indicates rapid heating. Rare earth elements then become much easier to extract.. As chemists scramble to find ways to reclaim valuable metals from industrial waste and discarded electronics, one team has found a solution that sounds a little like magic: Zap the trash with flashes of electric heat. Rare earth elements (REEs) present an environmental paradox. On one hand, these dozen or so metals, such as yttrium and neodymium, are vital...

TOKYO — Japanese high-tech firm Hitachi Wednesday unveiled an electric motor that does not use "rare earths", aiming to cut costs and reduce dependence on imports of the scarce minerals from China. The prototype 11 kilowatt motor does not use magnets containing rare earths and is expected to go into commercial production in 2014, the company said. Hitachi started work on the project on 2008. Other Japanese firms, including automaker Toyota, have been working towards the same goal, spurred on by high prices of the minerals. Permanent magnet motors usually contain rare earth such as neodymium and dysprosium and are...

TOKYO (Reuters) – Vast deposits of rare earth minerals, crucial in making high-tech electronics products, have been found on the floor of the Pacific Ocean and can be readily extracted, Japanese scientists said on Monday.

Friday, May 6, 2011 Rare Earths Seen Growing Less Rare SYDNEY (Dow Jones)--Demand for rare earth elements that has driven up prices more than tenfold since 2009 is likely to be met by a surplus of supply by 2013, as Western companies start up new mines to compete with the Chinese firms that now dominate the market, Goldman Sachs analysts predicted Thursday. The forecast calls into question the sustainability of the current boom in rare earths, a suite of 17 elements used in products from high-powered magnets, and fuel refining to energy-efficient light bulbs and mobile phone screens, as well...

There seems to be a similarity between international trade disputes and Texas Hold’em. There is always a certain amount of bluff that is part of the negotiations. The question is, how much is a bluff and how much is not. The Peoples Republic of China (PRC) has just revealed that they are going to use their stake in rare earth minerals production as their show card. Make no mistake -- the communist government is not bluffing. However, one good card does not make a winning hand. To understand the problem, we first must understand where rare earth mineral deposits are...

Researchers have found a deposit of rare-earth minerals off the coast of Japan that could supply the world for centuries, according to a new study. The study, published in the journal Nature on Tuesday, says the deposit contains 16 million tons of the valuable metals. Rare-earth minerals are used in everything from smartphone batteries to electric vehicles. By definition, these minerals contain one or more of 17 metallic rare-earth elements (for those familiar with the periodic table, those are on the second row from the bottom).

A clerk at Xhale City vape shop in Tucker, Atlanta went absolutely ballistic after a customer wearing a Trump t-shirt walked into the establishment. The pro-Trump customer was denied service and asked to leave the store while the vape shop employee accused him of being a “racist ************.” A black man was also standing in front of the counter watching it all go down and it was all caught on video. “If you do not stop recording in my store, I’m going to call the police and ask you to leave,” the triggered employee said. The customer refused to be...

All Apple iOS devices (iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch) contain heavy rare earth elements. Obama recently filed suit against China regarding abuse of their heavy rare earths monopoly. China restricts and taxes rare earth exports, making it more attractive to manufactures to relocate inside China. The NYTimes article never mentioned REEs (Rare Earth Elements). Only light rare earths are available in USA, it is the heavy that are needed. While it may not be the only factor in Apple's mind when constructing iPads with Foxconn in China, it must be a consideration. Video - Obama, China, Rare Earths - Can WTO...

The prosperity of China’s “authoritarian capitalism” is increasingly rewriting the ground-rules worldwide on the capitalist principles that have dominated the West’s economy for nearly two centuries. Nowhere is this shadow war more between the two systems more pronounced than in the global arena of production of rare earths elements (RREs), where China currently holds a de facto monopoly, raising concerns from Washington through London to Tokyo about what China might do with its hand across the throat of high-end western technology. In the capitalist West, as so convincingly dissected by Karl Marx, such a commanding position is a supreme and...

Approximately 13 million metric tons of rare earth elements (REE) exist within known deposits in the United States, according to the first-ever nationwide estimate of these elements by the U.S. Geological Survey. This estimate of domestic rare earth deposits is part of a larger report that includes a review of global sources for REE, information on known deposits that might provide domestic sources of REE in the future, and geologic information crucial for studies of the availability of REE to U.S. industry.

Earlier this year, China announced a 72 percent reduction in the export quotas for rare-earth metals for the second half of 2010, sending tremors across America's industrial complex. Rare earths are a group of 17 metals vital to the production of precision-guided munitions, cruise missiles, radar and other defense systems as well as consumer electronics and renewable-energy technologies such as wind turbines, solar panels and hybrid vehicles. Such metals are often compared to the yeast in bread - small in proportion but huge in contribution. The rationale behind Beijing's decision to cut exports: China produces 97 percent of the world's...

One of Senator Hillary Clinton's Asia policy advisers quit her presidential campaign several days ago, complaining that the candidate was engaging in "gratuitous China bashing."[1] And, in fact, the Senator has of late been engaged in a jeremiad on China.[2] To be sure, a good portion of the sourness nurtured in the Democratic Party's base against China is undeserved, and more about big-labor politics than genuine security concerns, yet Senator Clinton has spotlighted at least two grave vulnerabilities in America's defense industrial base: Chinese state-controlled investments in key U.S. defense suppliers and the impact on defense supplies caused by seemingly...

YEKATERINBURG, Russia — Germany will help Japan gain access to vital rare earth minerals which are being withheld by China in a territorial dispute, German Economy Minister Rainer Bruederle said Saturday. Bruederle was speaking on his way home from a visit to Tokyo where he had talks with Japanese trade and economy ministers Akihiro Ohata and Banri Kaieda. He said they had raised the possibility of Japan running out of stocks of the commodities vital for the manufacture of electronic goods such as mobile telephones. In turn Bruederle spoke of eventual joint efforts to explore for new resources of the...

Action is heating up in the world of rare earth minerals. China has blocked exports of rare earths to Japan over a fishing dispute between the two countries. -snip- "It is precisely this type of vulnerability in the overall rare earths supply chain [for geopolitical reasons and others] that makes it important for Japan and other countries to diversify their supply chains for rare earths," adds Hatch. That diversification may soon get a jump start. Today, the House of Representatives Science and Technology Committee approved legislation to authorize funding by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) for a $70 million...

Sharply raising the stakes in a dispute over Japan’s detention of a Chinese fishing trawler captain, the Chinese government has placed a trade embargo on all exports to Japan of a crucial category of minerals used in products like hybrid cars, wind turbines and guided missiles. Chinese customs officials are halting all shipments to Japan of so-called rare earth elements, industry officials said on Thursday morning. On Tuesday, Prime Minister Wen Jiabao personally called for Japan’s release of the captain, who was detained after his vessel collided with two Japanese coast guard vessels about 40 minutes apart as he tried...

Minerals, facing shortage, are key for military hardware, cell phones. Boeing has signed a deal to deploy remote sensing technology to map out U.S. deposits of rare earth elements. The rare earth family of minerals is the real-life version of the precious element "unobtanium" in James Cameron's movie "Avatar." They are used to make everything from military hardware to humble cell phones, but could soon be in short supply as worldwide demand outstrips mining production in China. The aerospace and defense giant announced today that it will confirm rare earth mining claims held by U.S. Rare Earths, Inc. at locations...

Fantastic Overview Of China And Its Death Grip On Rare Earth Metals Joe Weisenthal Jun. 3, 2010, 5:11 PM Image: U.S. Marines Yesterday the world was greeted with the news that China intends to tighten its grip over rare earth metals, the highly valuable commodities that are used in everything from defense to green tech. That China would do something like this has been fretted about for awhile, and it's why the US government sees rare earths as a matter of national security. However this plays out, we suspect the subject to get A LOT more attention going forward, so...

On the morning of the Battle of the Little Bighorn, Stabbed, one of Lt. Col. George Custer's senior scouts, maneuvered his pony through 24 other Arikaras attached to the 7th Cavalry. "Young men, keep up your courage, don't feel that you are children," he exhorted. "Today will be a hard battle." Then he took some clay he had brought with him from the Arikara homeland in North Dakota and rubbed it in his hands. One by one, Stabbed called the scouts to him. "He spat on the clay and then rubbed it on their chests," surviving scouts told historian O.G....