Conflict Minerals. Infographic : Conflict Resources and their Supply Chains Breaking the links between international supply chains and violent conflict For decades the trade in natural resources, including minerals, has played a central role in funding and fuelling some of the world’s most brutal conflicts. Revenues from the extraction and trade of these natural resources can give abusive armed groups the means to operate and can provide off-budget funding to State security forces and corrupt officials. In many instances, these groups are responsible for grave human rights violations. For nearly 20 years, Global Witness has run pioneering campaigns and in-depth investigations to break the links between natural resources and conflict. For more information about the current situation in eastern DRC, click here. Companies source minerals from conflict-affected and high-risk areas around the world. To see our reports and press releases on conflict minerals, click here.
Additional Resources: What are rare earth metals? "Rare earth" metals aren't as rare as they sound — in fact, you're probably using some right now. They're key to a variety of everyday devices, from tablet computers and TVs to hybrid cars and wind turbines, so it may be encouraging to know several kinds are actually common. Cerium, for example, is the 25th most abundant element on Earth. So why are they called "rare" earths? The name alludes to their elusive nature, since the 17 elements rarely exist in pure form. And, unfortunately, that isn't their only drawback. This wasn't a problem until recently, when China began tightening its grip on rare earths. Many of China's customers are already shopping around: Deposits in Russia, Brazil, Australia and South Asia have drawn widespread interest, as has the only rare earths mine in the U.S.
The newly reopened rare earths mine in Mountain Pass, Calif., pictured here in December 2010. Why are so many countries reluctant to exploit their own rare earth reserves? A rare breed Rare earths roster. Rare earth element. As defined by IUPAC, a rare earth element (REE) or rare earth metal is one of a set of seventeen chemical elements in the periodic table, specifically the fifteen lanthanides plus scandium and yttrium.[2] Scandium and yttrium are considered rare earth elements because they tend to occur in the same ore deposits as the lanthanides and exhibit similar chemical properties. List[edit] A table listing the seventeen rare earth elements, their atomic number and symbol, the etymology of their names, and their main usages (see also Applications of lanthanides) is provided here. Some of the rare earth elements are named after the scientists who discovered or elucidated their elemental properties, and some after their geographical discovery.
A mnemonic for the names of the sixth-row elements in order is "Lately college parties never produce sexy European girls that drink heavily even though you look".[6] Abbreviations[edit] The following abbreviations are often used: Discovery and early history[edit] Rare-earth-metal-production-aircraft-engine. My search for a smartphone that is not soaked in blood | George Monbiot. If you are too well connected, you stop thinking. The clamour, the immediacy, the tendency to absorb other people's thoughts, interrupt the deep abstraction required to find your own way. This is one of the reasons why I have not yet bought a smartphone. But the technology is becoming ever harder to resist. Perhaps this year I will have to succumb.
So I have asked a simple question: can I buy an ethical smartphone? There are dozens of issues, such as starvation wages, bullying, abuse and 60-hour weeks in the sweatshops manufacturing them, the debt bondage into which some of the workers are pressed, the energy used, the hazardous waste produced. But I will concentrate on just one: are the components soaked in the blood of people from the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo?
None of the campaigning groups wants companies to stop buying minerals from eastern Congo. I began with the retailers, and the results were disappointing. Apple's response was less detailed and less persuasive. Solutions for Hope. First Response: Sourcing and Capacity Building to Support Peace and Local Community Development In 2011, Motorola Solutions and AVX joined forces and created the Solutions for Hope tantalum program to test the feasibility of responsible, traceable sourcing of tantalum from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to promote economic stability of the area. This unique approach to mineral sourcing utilized a closed-pipe supply line and a defined set of key suppliers – mines (including artisanal cooperatives), smelter/ processor, component manufacturer and end user – identified in advance of initiating the project.
Over the past 3 years, the program has successfully demonstrated the following: In 2012, the Dutch Foreign Ministry, Philips, Motorola Solutions, and other partners launched the Conflict Free Tin Initiative (CFTI), based on the Solutions for Hope model – further demonstrating proof of concept and market acceptance of this responsible sourcing approach. Benefits of a SfH Platform. Peak Resources Provides Update on Ngualla Rare Earth Project. WEST PERTH, AUSTRALIA--(Marketwire - Jul 10, 2012) - Peak Resources Limited ("Peak") (: Ngualla is the world's fifth largest rare earth deposit outside of China and the highest grade of the top seven.
Ngualla is potentially a low-cost, long term rare earth project located in Tanzania. Highlights Richard Beazley, Managing Director of Peak Resources, said, "These results are a significant step forward in the confirmation of a viable sulphuric acid leach process for Ngualla rare earth mineralization. The high recoveries achieved are particularly promising and the results support the Company's expectations that Ngualla will be a low cost mine. We look forward to sharing our results from additional studies by the end of the third quarter. " Technical Report Background Peak is completing test work to evaluate the efficiency of a sulphuric acid leach process for the production of a rare earth concentrate from a significant portion of the high grade, weathered carbonatite mineralization at Ngualla. Dirty, dangerous and destructive – the elements of a technology boom | SE Smith. Computers dumped on a landfill site. Photograph: Yan Morvan/Rex Features Rare earth metals are, if you're reading this, all around you.
They're in your computer or tablet or mobile device. They're in the cellphone you may own, in the other technology you rely on for tasks of daily living. Technology, we are often reminded, is the hope of the future, is the thing we are relying upon for great social and political change. The darker shadows that underlie technology are growing with increasing reliance upon it; labour issues abound, for example, as numerous recent exposés on working conditions in manufacturing facilities illustrate. Environmental costs associated with rare earth metals are quite significant.
Mining is a dirty industry. Rare metal extraction involves substantial pollution in the mining, onsite processing, and refining phase. The hard physical labour and exposure to pollution also make it hard to find workers. What happens to discarded electronics? Rare earth metals and their role in the built environment | Guardian Sustainable Business. As the world enters a period where many resources are under continuing pressure, including those that sustain the very fabric of life, it is vital that the property industry lends its expertise as to how best to access and use limited speciality resources such as rare earth metals.
Rare earths are a set of 17 metals that have conventionally been produced as a by-product of mining for other minerals. They are increasingly important to bringing about a low-carbon future, particularly in the renewable energy and transportation sectors, and in addressing the challenge of climate change. The recent RICS publication, Rare Earth Metals, argues that, as global demand for these resources grows, the property profession will become increasingly significant in ensuring these minerals are managed in a sustainable way. With cities occupying 2% of the surface of the earth but consuming three-quarters of natural resources, the great global urbanisation wave presents an unsustainable prospect. Rare earth metals mine is key to US control over hi-tech future | Environment. It's a deep pit in the Mojave desert. But it could hold the key to America challenging China's technological domination of the 21st century.
At the bottom of the vast site, beneath 6 metres (20ft) of bright emerald-green water, runs a rich seam of ores that are hardly household names but are rapidly emerging as the building blocks of the hi-tech future. The mine is the largest known deposit of rare earth elements outside China. Eight years ago, it was shut down in a tacit admission that the US was ceding the market to China. Now, the owners have secured final approval to restart operations, and hope to begin production soon. "We will probably never be the largest [mine] in the world again.
It will be hard to overcome China's status in that regard, but we do think we will be a very significant supplier," Mark Smith, chief executive of Molycorp Minerals which owns the mine, told reporters during a tour of the site. China controls 97% of global rare earth metals production. The Defense Implications of Rare Earth Shortages.
Rare earth elements are used in everyday products: smart phones, hard disc drives, flat-screen televisions and advanced batteries. They are essential to such “green” technologies as wind turbines, compact fluorescent lights and hybrid cars. In today’s world, which emphasizes cutting-edge and environmentally-friendly technologies, rare earths are everywhere. Furthermore, a range of highly advanced defense systems depend on rare earth phosphors, metals, alloys and magnets for their unique functionality. For example: The Ground Laser Target Designator, which allows infantrymen to guide munitions onto targets and estimate ranges, depends on neodymium-doped yttrium-aluminum garnets.
Possible shortages of some rare earths, therefore, threaten our nation's defense systems. Rare Earth Supply Chain. Today, as a direct consequence of active government support for the rare earth industry since the 1980s [see Figure I below]: 3 Supply-and-Demand Analysis. Risk Mitigation Plans. The Way Forward. Shortage of Rare Earth Minerals May Cripple U.S. High-Tech, Scientists Warn Congress. All those hybrid and electric cars, wind turbines and similar clean tech innovations may count for nothing if the U.S. cannot secure a supply of rare earth minerals. Ditto for other advanced telecommunications or defense technologies, scientists told a U.S.
House subcommittee. China has supplied 91 percent of U.S. consumption of rare earths between 2005 and 2008, and continues to represent the world's largest rare earth exporter. But the Chinese have warned that their own domestic industry appetite for rare earths may eventually force them to stop exporting -- an action that would leave the U.S. high-tech industries crippled without other readily available supplies. "The United States, not so long ago, was the world leader in producing and exporting rare earths," said Brad Miller, the Democratic Representative from North Carolina and chairman of the subcommittee.
But there's also opportunity from investing in rare earths, besides avoiding a supply chain problem. Pubs.usgs.gov/of/2011/1042/of2011-1042.pdf. The Next Oil?: Rare Earth Metals. Rare earth metals are quickly becoming the next important strategic resource. For many countries in Asia, the stakes are big. By Elliot Brennan for The Diplomat January 10, 2013 Facebook60 Twitter6 Google+25 LinkedIn1 Rare earth metals (REM) are increasingly becoming a critical strategic resource. The name, rare earth metal, is a misnomer. Two decades ago, Deng Xiaoping, the former leader of the Communist Party of China, noted the importance of REMs, “The Middle East has oil and China has rare earth,” he said in 1992. In 2010, China halted shipments of REMs to Japan for two months following a diplomatic crisis, crippling high-tech manufacturing in the country.
Solving Critical Rare Earth Metal Shortages: Dr. Michael Berry and Chris Berry. Source: Brian Sylvester of The Critical Metals Report (1/10/12) Years of supply mismanagement have left the U.S. dependent on foreign sources for critical metals like graphite, vanadium and manganese. In this exclusive interview with The Critical Metals Report, Dr. Michael Berry, publisher of Morning Notes and a former portfolio manager, and Chris Berry, founder of House Mountain Partners and co-author of Morning Notes, discuss what early-stage mines close to home could be the first to bolster the supply in U.S.
The Critical Metals Report: In a presentation at the China Investment Conference in December, you said that over the last 20 years the U.S. government has mismanaged its supplies of critical metals to the point where it depends almost exclusively on foreign sources. Michael Berry: It's just now starting to dawn on Washington that we don't have a stockpile. TCMR: How involved should the U.S. government be in the metals supply chain? Dr. Rare earth metals: Will we have enough? "To provide most of our power through renewables would take hundreds of times the amount of rare earth metals that we are mining today," said Thomas Graedel, Clifton R.
Musser Professor of Industrial Ecology and professor of geology and geophysics at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies. There is no firm definition of rare earth metals, but the term generally refers to metals used in small quantities. Rare earth metals include: rare earth elements—17 elements in the periodic table, the 15 lanthanides plus scandium and yttrium; six platinum group elements; and other byproduct metals that occur in copper, gold, uranium, phosphates, iron or zinc ores.
While many rare earth metals are actually quite common, they are seldom found in sufficient amounts to be extracted economically. With continued global growth of the middle class, especially in China, India and Africa, demand will continue to grow. So what other solutions exist? Energy Innovation Hub Tackles Shortages of Rare Earth Metals. This is an excerpt from EERE Network News, a weekly electronic newsletter. January 16, 2013 The Energy Department on January 9 selected Ames Laboratory for an award of $120 million over five years to establish an Energy Innovation Hub, which will seek solutions to shortages of rare earth metals and other materials impacting U.S. energy security.
The new Critical Materials Institute (CMI) in Ames, Iowa, will assemble researchers from the Department's Idaho National Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory, as well as academia and the private sector. The new Hub will focus on technologies that will enable the United States to make better use of accessible materials and to eliminate the need for materials that are subject to supply disruptions. CMI will leverage these existing research programs into a larger, coordinated effort.
Prices of Rare-Earths Minerals Succumb to Gravity. China's stranglehold on rare earth metals 'no threat to US security' | Business. China rules the rare earth - Opinion. China: Nation has 23% of world's 'rare earth materials' but supplies 90% of the market. China raises export quota for rare earth metals. Chinese giant halts rare earth shipments to hike prices [printer-friendly] Full Text: Situation and Policies of China's Rare Earth Industry[1] Policies of China's rare earth industry|Comment and Document. China's rare earth policy backs Apple into a corner. Infographic: the periodic table of smartphones. New venture 'to mine asteroids' Asteroid mining: US company looks to space for precious metal | Science.