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. 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. 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. Rare-earth-metal-production-aircraft-engine. My search for a smartphone that is not soaked in blood. 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? 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. 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. Dirty, dangerous and destructive – the elements of a technology boom. Computers dumped on a landfill site.
Photograph: Yan Morvan/Rex Features Rare earth metals are, if you're reading this, all around you. Rare earth metals and their role in the built environment. 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. Rare earth metals mine is key to US control over hi-tech future. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. How did this happen? 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? CB: Yes I do. 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. 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. Many materials deemed critical by the Department are used in wind turbines, solar panels, electric vehicles, and energy-efficient lighting. Prices of Rare-Earths Minerals Succumb to Gravity. China's stranglehold on rare earth metals 'no threat to US security' China's near-monopoly on rare earth metals poses no threat to US security, a Pentagon report is likely to conclude. China rules the rare earth - Opinion. Asia is at the centre of an inevitable development of our digital world: the coming mineral wars. The computer you are using to read this article is already involved in a global war.
Oil wars? China: Nation has 23% of world's 'rare earth materials' but supplies 90% of the market. By Eddie Wrenn Published: 14:25 GMT, 20 June 2012 | Updated: 16:26 GMT, 20 June 2012. 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. China's rare earth policy backs Apple into a corner. High performance access to file storage. Infographic: the periodic table of smartphones. New venture 'to mine asteroids' 22 January 2013Last updated at 11:39 ET By Paul Rincon Science editor, BBC News website Advocates hope asteroid mining could turn into a trillion-dollar business; others are sceptical A new venture is joining the effort to extract mineral resources on asteroids.
The announcement of plans by Deep Space Industries to exploit the rare metals present in the space rocks turns asteroid mining into a two-horse race. The other venture, Planetary Resources, went public with its proposals last year. Advocates of asteroid mining hope it could turn into a trillion-dollar business, but some scientists are highly sceptical of the idea. Deep Space Industries wants to send a fleet of asteroid-prospecting spacecraft out into the Solar System to hunt for resources. These spacecraft, which the company has dubbed "Fireflies", would use low-cost CubeSat components and benefit from discounted delivery to space by ride-sharing on the launch of larger communications satellites. Paul.Rincon-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk. Asteroid mining: US company looks to space for precious metal. A US company has unveiled plans to launch a fleet of spacecraft to hunt for small asteroids that pass close to Earth which might one day be mined for their precious resources.