rare earth element shortage

Rare-earths chess game intensifies with new moves in China, Washington

By / June 16, 2011

Maybe not a zugzwang yet, but rare-earth strategies are getting more complex and riskier. Credit: Wikipedia. It’s been a while since I have addressed strategic materials, but several recent developments…

Read More

Advanced materials opportunity: ARPA-E offers new $130M round of high-risk, high-reward funding

By / April 20, 2011

One of the projects ARPA-E is seeking to fund are alternatives to five key at-risk rare earth elements. Credit: DOE, “Critical Materials Strategy.” The DOE announced today that it is…

Read More

They write letters . . . on the U.S.’s rare-earth defense strategy

By / February 2, 2011

(h/t to RareMetalBlog) Two U.S. senators from Alaska and a U.S. representative from Colorado are steamed about what they perceive is the Department of Defense’s lax attitude toward the strategic…

Read More

Meanings, news of China’s new rare earths quotas don’t agree

By / December 28, 2010

Chinese rare earth exports, 2009-2011, in metric tons: |  2009/H1: 21,728 tons ||| 2010/H1: 22,282 tons ||| 2011/H1: 14,446 tons |  2009/H2: 28,417 tons 2010/H2: 7,976 tons | 2011/H2: ?…

Read More

Rare earth scramble heats up; California mine opening imminent

By / December 23, 2010

Molycorp’s Mountain Pass mine. Credit: Wikipedia Commons Apparently the DOE’s release of its first Critical Materials Strategy was one in a series of announcements about how various companies and countries…

Read More

Materials stories that may also be of interest

By / November 2, 2010

At the end of each week, I end up with a list of a bunch of stories I started to write about, or started to investigate or didn’t even get…

Read More

Uh oh: China says its rare earth reserves might not last long

By / October 16, 2010

The world shouldn’t take China’s rare earth supply for granted, according to a new Bloomberg story. The ministry of commerce of the Asian nation that, effectively, controls much of the market…

Read More

Rare earths: Growing demand and tight supplies

By / August 24, 2010

It’s far from a disinterested source, but Avalon Rare Metals tells me today that prices for individual rare earth elements have soared 22-705% since January: “[T]he most significant rises have…

Read More

Rare earth’s brick wall

By / July 25, 2010

This falls into the “must read” category. A few weeks back, I posted on major cuts in China rare earth exports. Science magazine’s  Robert F. Service provides more context: “.…

Read More

Ferroelectric nanowires and other emerging electronic materials

By / April 12, 2010

According to a news release from the University of Arkansas, researchers have discovered a new phase in ferroelectric nanowires that could be manipulated for electronic devices. The group, that included…

Read More