In January 2023, Swedish state-owned mining company LKAB announced that it had identified more than 1 million tonnes of rare earth oxides near the town of Kiruna in northern Sweden. Though mining this deposit may reduce reliance on China for rare earths, the impacts of a new mine on Kiruna residents and the indigenous Sámi people cannot be overlooked.
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The March 2023 issue of the ACerS Bulletin—featuring sustainability in industry—is now available online. Plus—upcoming Bulletin digital evolution.
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Carbon nano-onions are a newer carbon nanostructure with great potential in application, but synthesizing these materials conventionally requires high temperatures, expensive feedstock, or corrosive environments. Researchers at Nagoya Institute of Technology used a one-step microwave pyrolysis process to turn fish scales into carbon nano-onions with highly crystalline and functionalized structures.
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On Sept. 7, 2022, Canadian mining startup The Metals Company announced the International Seabed Authority greenlit their plan to conduct an industrial seafloor mining trial to extract polymetallic nodules. While marine scientists are concerned about the environmental effects of deep-sea mining in general, an investigative report by The New York Times questions the choice of The Metals Company to conduct this trial.
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The August 2022 issue of the ACerS Bulletin—featuring formation of first glass in the universe—is now available online. Plus—USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries and refractory raw materials and sustainability.
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Mining rare earth ores is only the first step in securing the rare earths supply chain. These ores must undergo refining processes, and China controls nearly all of the world’s rare earth processing facilities. Two U.S. mining companies, MP Materials and USA Rare Earth, plan to open domestic rare earth processing facilities within the next year.
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When drying ceramics, many characteristics affect how the material will respond to moisture loss and contraction. Researchers in Brazil found that the drying sensitivity coefficient is a determining factor associated with loss content.
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More than 100 attendees converged in downtown Charlotte, N.C., May 9–11 to take part in the combined meeting of the ACerS Structural Clay Products Division, ACerS Southwest Section, and Clemson University’s National Brick Research Center.
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Disruptions in the energy market are not the only market forces affecting the European ceramics industry. The war in Ukraine is also driving a shortage in supplies of Ukrainian clay.
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Recycling and reusing waste materials is one approach the refractories industry is pursuing to improve sustainability. Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Building Physics have explored the potential of electrodynamic fragmentation to recycle composites, and their recent study looks specifically at the potential of this technique applied to refractory materials.
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