News from our World of Metals

Scientists get better understanding of how rare earth metal in lightbulbs forms - MINING.COM "#Cerium is a #rareearthmetal that is used in some types of lightbulbs, flat-screen TVs and biomedical applications." mining.com • 2 min read

Push for ESG price premiums may reshape global critical minerals markets - MINING.COM “some have called for an ESG premium on low-carbon production that would help Western producers compete with cheaper, but more polluting Indonesian #metal.” mining.com • 6 min read

US backs Australian, Brazil rare earths projects for up to $850 million - MINING.COM "The United States has backed two Australian-listed #rareearths projects with up to $850 million of funding as Western nations build a supply chain for the strongly magnetic #metals used in sectors from renewable energy to defence." mining.com • 2 min read

Federal government pitches $6M for Sask. rare earth processing facility "The federal government says 23 of the 31 rare earth elements can be found in Saskatchewan [Canada]." saskatoon.ctvnews.ca • 3 min read

Will Germany face a rare earths shortage? – DW – 03/11/2024 "Rare earths are not that rare. The rarest — #thulium — is more common than #gold, but it is rarely found in quantities that make mining economically worthwhile." dw.com • 4 min read

How To Invest In Precious Metals At RWMM we always favor physical investing. "If You Don't Hold It, You Don't Own It." But we understand our readership could be interested in the following piece about investing in metal-related companies. forbes.com • 3 min read

China's Grip On Rare Earth Elements Loosens "The prime issue is that no matter where the REEs are mined, they need to undergo processing in China. This grants China substantial influence over various supply chains." carboncredits.com • 5 min read

The outlook for development of Canada’s rare earths "Canada has some of the world’s largest known reserves and resources (measured and indicated) of #rareearths, estimated at over 15.2 million tonnes of rare earth oxide in 2023 and is host to several advanced exploration projects across the country. Some of these projects contain high concentrations of highly valued ‘heavy’ rare earths such as #dysprosium and #terbium that are in limited global supply." innovationnewsnetwork.com • 10 min read

Innovative Recycling Method Unlocks Rare Earth Metals from Spent Fluorescent Bulbs "The bulbs' interior coating contains rare-earth-based phosphors, key to their bright light but also a source of valuable #RareEarthMetals." bnnbreaking.com • 2 min read

A bright outlook for rare earth elements after a challenging period "in 2023, #REE prices tumbled. The price (in China) of #praseodymium oxide — one of the most widely used rare earth elements — fell 34% over the year, while #terbium oxide and #neodymium oxide each dropped to their lowest levels last month since late 2020" // "It is believed, however, that further downside for rare earths is limited as prices, particularly for #neodymium-#praseodymium oxide, which is used in permanent #magnets, are now near the production cost level after falling 38% last year." proactiveinvestors.com • 9 min read

Rare Earth Metals May Be Lurking in Your Junk Drawer "The idea of reusing or recycling rare earths isn’t new. In the 1980s, Japanese researchers coined the term #urbanMining to describe collecting #rareMetals from discarded appliances and electronic devices, rather than from the earth." nytimes.com • 3 min read

US and allied nations progressing rare earth recovery in response to China’s dominance "Traditional rare earth recovery methods have long been criticised for the quantity of water required and the amount of waste generated." innovationnewsnetwork.com • 8 min read

Opinion | Wyoming Hits the Rare-Earth Mother Lode "The lode at Halleck Creek has the potential to make the U.S. the world’s largest processor of the minerals" wsj.com • Subscription may be required

University of Idaho tests new ways to mine rare metals - Local News 8 "One way that has shown promise is through #Phytomining, which uses plants to absorb and mine the elements. (...) They grow and produce a mass that has a high concentration of #rareelements." localnews8.com • 2 min read

This Year Could See a Significant Rebound in Rare Earths Metals Prices | OilPrice.com “#RareEarth prices surged to record highs in 2022 before pulling back sharply in 2023 largely due to increased supply from China and slower-than-expected demand growth.” oilprice.com • 4 min read

Four States Eye Tax Exemptions for Precious Metals | OilPrice.com “bills would end state sales tax on #gold, #silver, #platinum, and #palladium bullion” oilprice.com • 3 min read

Precious Metals ETFs: What They Are and How They Work At RWMM we favor physical holding but one might want to learn about ETFs with this new article. Remember that only physical holding prevents from counterparty risk. With physical purchase at RWMM : “Own what’s rare” investopedia.com • 10 min read

Pentagon plans AI-based program to estimate prices for critical minerals "Traditionally, #metals prices are set by futures #markets and pricing agencies and reflect what buyers are willing to pay and sellers are willing to accept using supply, demand and other factors." reuters.com • 6 min read

University Of Idaho Introduces Sustainable Methods For Extracting Rare Earth Elements “The project introduces sustainable methods like phytomining, a process that uses plants to extract metals through their roots. It also introduces another process called bioleaching that replaces harmful extraction chemicals with organic bacteria. “ ktvb.com • 1 min read

China, in comic strip, warns of 'overseas' threats to its rare earths “State-controlled Global Times described the comic as underscoring the importance of safeguarding key mineral resources as China-U.S. trade frictions and global geopolitical tensions have turned the global competition for #rareearths into an issue of national security.” reuters.com • 2 min read

Rare Earths Stocks: 8 Biggest Companies in 2023 "#Rareearths are critical to the dawn of a new era in energy and technology. Learn more about the biggest #rareearths stocks on the world's top stock exchanges." investingnews.com • 1 min read

China's rare earth exports hit 5-year high on demand from EV, high-tech sectors “Europe and the United States are trying to wean themselves from dependence on #rareearths from China, which accounts for nearly 90% of global refined output.” mining.com • 2 min read

Rainbow Rare Earths starts rare earth oxide separation in US “The four critical REEs to be produced at Phalaborwa are #neodymium, #praseodymium, #dysprosium and #terbium” mining-technology.com • 2 min read

Rare Earths Market Forecast: Top Trends That Will Affect Rare Earths in 2024 “While there don't seem to be any market-shaking catalysts on the horizon for #rareearths in 2024, there are few key factors that could have an impact on the industry in the new year and beyond.” investingnews.com • 9 min read

Kazakhstan Plans to Auction Nearly 70 Precious Metal Deposits - The Astana Times "Kazakhstan holds a prominent position in the global market, as significant aerospace companies such as Boeing, Airbus, Nippon Steel, Snecma, and General Electric utilize #titanium produced within the country. #Kazakhstan is recognized for its significant contributions to various rare metals production, including #beryllium, #tantalum, #niobium, #ammonium #perrhenate, #selenium, #bismuth, #copper #telluride, and enriched #selenium." astanatimes.com • 1 min read

Exploring the Unexpected: An AI Model Uncovers Rare Earth Elements “An #AI Model Uncovers #RareEarthElements” jpt.spe.org • 11 min read

Türkiye to become one of top 5 countries producing rare earths “The world's second-largest #rareearthelement reserve was discovered in Eşkisehir’s Beylikova site in 2022." hurriyetdailynews.com • 1 min read

Little bacterium may make big impact on rare-earth processing “Doctoral student Sean Medin and Anastacia Dressel '24 led the research to genetically engineer a strain of Vibrio natriegens to increase its ability to biosorb—or extract—#rareEarthElements.” phys.org • 3 min read

UK ‘vulnerable’ over its dependency on China for rare minerals “UK’s dependence on the world’s second biggest economy for rare metals such as #lithium and #cobalt” scmp.com • 2 min read

"Why I Don't Like Gold " -YouTube Video In his YouTube video (11m48s), Michael captures the essence of Rare World Metals Mint. The motto of our company is "Own What's Rare" and with that it's further implied or is at least our theory that you'll always have something that should be difficult to manipulate/devalue. youtube.com 11m48s watch

Tech Talk: how to reduce rare metals in electric cars | Autocar Professional “The most powerful types of permanent magnet make use of #rareearth metals such as #praseodymium, #terbium, #neodymium and #dysprosium. ” autocarpro.in • 3 min read

The Critical Minerals to China, EU, and U.S. National Security "Ten materials feature on critical material lists of both the U.S., the EU, and China, including cobalt, lithium, graphite, and rare earths." visualcapitalist.com • 3 min read

Federally funded project will search for rare earth elements in Southeast Alaska seaweed “Bokan Mountain has a decades-long mining history. (…) The site contains numerous rare earth elements, including #dysprosium, #terbium and #yttrium.” alaskapublic.org • 3 min read

Rare Metal "Purple Bronze" Could Make The Perfect Quantum Switching Device “Its full name is #lithium #molybdenum #purple #bronze and its chemical formula is Li0.9Mo6O17. “ iflscience.com • 4 min read

European rare earth element imports surge 9% “The EU this week approved plans for the Critical Raw Materials Act (CRMA), which sets ambitious targets to redress the issue. (...) The CRMA targets include extracting 10% of the EU's annual consumption of strategic raw materials, processing 40% of the EU's annual consumption of strategic raw materials, and recycling 25% of the EU's annual consumption of strategic raw materials by 2030.” miningmagazine.com • 2 min read

Western miners target China’s rare earth metals grip with premium prices "The West will be able to supply environmentally responsible and traceable #rareearths, but the cost structure is different to the Chinese and hence it comes at a premium," (...) "The miners believe manufacturers will absorb extra costs due to new environmental, social and governance-related legislation and tax incentives like the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act and argue that a premium price is warranted for reliable and sustainably sourced #rareearths that are key to the transition to cleaner energy." reuters.com • 5 min read

China introduces measures to strengthen export management of some rare metals “China formulated measures for the exports of #tungsten, #silver and #antimony for 2024-2025, the Ministry of Commerce said on Monday.” zawya.com • 1 min read

The Kvanefjeld project: A potential world-class supplier of rare earths “the potential to be an essential world-class supplier of #rareearths, in particular the group of ‘magnet metals’ (#neodymium, #praseodymium, #terbium and #dysprosium” innovationnewsnetwork.com • 8 min read

The world’s first High-Entropy Alloy Powder made exclusively of precious metals “an alloy that contains five or more elements in equal proportions of atomic number and in which no single element accounts for more than half of the total is called a High-Entropy Alloy” tanaka-preciousmetals.com • 9 min read

Finland discovers rare earth minerals at the Sokli deposit “Finnish Minerals Group and the Geological Survey of Finland have identified two new minerals, #kukharenkoite and #cordylite, at the company’s Sokli deposit. This is the first time these #RareEarth minerals have been discovered in the country.” mining.com • 1 min read

Rhodium: Earth's Rarest and Most Expensive Precious Metal “In 1803 and 1804, Wollaston announced that with the sample of #platinum ore, he discovered two other precious metals. One he called #palladium, and the other, #rhodium.” science.howstuffworks.com • 1 min read

China is set to dominate the deep sea and its wealth of rare metals “China has exclusive rights to prospect for lumpy, golf-ball-size rocks that are millions of years old and worth trillions of dollars. It is China’s latest contract, won in 2019, to explore for “polymetallic nodules,” which are rich in #manganese, #cobalt, #nickel and #copper — metals needed for everything from electric cars to advanced weapons systems. They lie temptingly on the ocean floor, just waiting to be hoovered up.” washingtonpost.com • 17 min read

Scientists Solve Mystery of Precious Metals in Earth's Mantle “#Gold, #platinum, #palladium, #rhodium, #iridium, #osmium, #rhenium, and #ruthenium, those elements that came to Earth through impacts from giant asteroids and protoplanets, all bind easily to #iron. But instead of sinking to our planet’s iron-rich core, they remained relatively near the surface, in the mantle. A very lucky, but also confusing phenomenon.” explorersweb.com • 2 min read

NASA's Psyche mission launches on six-year journey to rare metal-rich asteroid “This will be our first time visiting a world that has a metal surface” collectspace.com • 1 min read

Brazil starts to tap its rare earth reserves “Brazil has the third largest reserves of rare earths in the world according to the US Geological Survey (USGS), with 21 million tonnes.” fastmarkets.com • 5 min read

Powering the green economy: the quest for magnets without rare earths – Physics World “with uncertainty over the continued supply of #rareearths, the search is on for alternative magnets that perform as well but are completely made from other elements.” physicsworld.com • 10 min read

"the lack of any production of REEs in North America is critical.
-Bob Moriarty" 321gold.com • 3 min read

Metal-loving microbes offer a green way to refine rare earth elements “scientists have characterized the genome of Shewanella oneidensis—a metal-loving bacteria with an affinity for #rareearthelements—to replace the harsh chemical processing with a benign practice called biosorption” phys.org • 5 min read

Why are rare earth elements so rare? “their limited global supply is a big worry for governments and corporations that need these metals to continue manufacturing all sorts of modern essentials.” livescience.com • 4 min read

What Is Rhodium, Almost 10 Times the Price of Gold? “The most precious and expensive metal in the world is not gold but a rare, and hard metal called #rhodium, a name derived from the Greek ‘rhodon’, meaning rose-colored.” greekreporter.com • 3 min read

How Vietnam plans to dent China's rare earths dominance “Vietnam aims to reopen its largest #rareearths mine next year with a Western-backed project that might match the world’s largest” firstpost.com • 6 min read

City moving ‘one building at time’ after rare metals worth billions found "It’s estimated this territory would have about 585 million tons of minerals, with at least one million tons of #praseodymium or #neodymium oxides, substances necessary for the manufacture of electric vehicles." express.co.uk • 1 min read

UK rare earth producer pivots to EU and US “Brexit has proved a big obstacle for the company in securing contracts to supply magnet manufacturers within the EU” ft.com • 4 min read

Malaysia to ban export of rare earths to boost domestic industry “Malaysia’s ban could affect sales to China, which imported about 8% of its #rareearth ores from the Southeast Asian country between January and July this year, according to China customs data.” mining.com • 2 min read

Malaysia plans to ban exports of rare earth minerals “Malaysia has deposits of #monazite and #xenotime, which are minerals with #rareearth elements of critical importance to high tech electronics and renewable technologies.” asia.nikkei.com • 2 min read

Charted: America’s Import Reliance of Critical Minerals "the U.S. is 100% reliant on imports for at least 12 key #minerals deemed critical by the government, with China being the primary import source for many of these along with many other #CriticalMinerals." elements.visualcapitalist.com • 3 min read

Unearthing Rare Earth Elements – Scientists Use AI To Find Rare Materials “The team created a machine learning model that uses data from the Mineral Evolution Database, which includes 295,583 mineral localities of 5,478 mineral species, to predict previously unknown mineral occurrences based on association rules.” scitechdaily.com • 2 min read

Chinese Export Restrictions Lead to Exploding Rare Metal Prices “Prices for #gallium are reported to have increased by 50% in just the past seventeen days, following the August 1st enforcement of China's export restrictions on the rare metal.” tomshardware.com • 2 min read

A Mysterious Cosmic Metal May Solve The Rare Earths Crisis “a possible answer: #tetrataenite, an iron-nickel alloy that contains many of the magnetic properties found in #rareearthmetals“ iflscience.com • 3 min read

Concerns that US-Mongolia rare-earth cooperation will undercut China's industry are unwarranted “Mongolia's #rareearth reserves are second only to China, reaching 31 million tons. Although Mongolia's rare-earth reserves are much higher than that of the US, the former also lacks a complete rare-earth processing industry chain and can only export rare earth ores.” globaltimes.cn • 4 min read

Japan to Stockpile Rare Metals as Part of Effort to Reduce Dependence on China “The Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation (JOGMEC) is responsible for maintaining the nation’s #raremetal reserves” japan-forward.com • 4 min read

The Rise of Rare Earth-Free Electric Motors for Electric Vehicles “In 2022, 82% of the electric car market used electric motors based on rare earth permanent magnets” energyportal.eu • 2 min read

Difficult for US to rebuild rare earth supply chain “In June 2023, China's imports of #rareearthmetal ores, which were not raw materials but needed further processing, reached 7,167.8 tons, up 5.6 percent year-on-year. Among these imports, 7,117.5 tons were from the US.” chinadaily.com.cn • 5 min read

What Does China's Stimulus Plan Mean For Rare Earths? “China is considering a broad stimulus package that includes both real estate support and interest rate cuts. This stimulus package might provide price support for #rareearths” oilprice.com • 3 min read

China's curbs on rare metal exports may pose risk to Japan manufacturing | NHK WORLD-JAPAN News “Many of these metals, including #gallium and #germanium, are imported by Japanese companies and used in semiconductor materials.” www3.nhk.or.jp • 6 min read

The Ecosystem: Weighing the attractions of recycling rare earth magnets “Most permanent #magnets, especially those with the highest performance, contain raw materials that are scarce” sciencebusiness.net • 7 min read

Japan and Saudi Arabia seek joint rare-earth investments “Japan and Saudi Arabia will explore resource development projects in third countries for joint investment. They hope to secure rights to key minerals, such as #rareearthmetals” asia.nikkei.com • 2 min read

Rare Earth Production Will Surge, But The Riches Must Be Fairly Spread “The rare minerals are concentrated in a few countries, putting the rest of the world at risk of everything from political unrest to export restrictions to market manipulation. For example, Australia supplies #lithium, China has #graphite, Chile possesses #copper, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo has #cobalt. Indonesia is rich in #nickel, while South Africa sits atop #platinum and #iridium.” forbes.com • 5 min read

NASA plans to mine the Moon for resources within the next decade “NASA also plans to establish a pilot processing plant to extract resources like oxygen, water, iron, and #raremetals by 2032.” chron.com • 2 min read

China Set to Boost State Cobalt Reserves After Tumble in Prices "Chinese refiners, which dominate processing of #cobalt, are heavily reliant on material that comes from DRC mines, although Indonesia is quickly emerging as an important source. Surging violence in the eastern DRC could further destabilize the country as it prepares for elections in December, a group of experts from the United Nations warned last month. " bloomberg.com • 1 min read

RANKED: World's top 10 rare earth projects “a list of the world’s top 10 #rareearth projects, measured in total #rareEarthOxides (TREO).” mining.com • 3 min read

Kazatomprom to develop its own rare metals deposit “one of the world’s top #beryllium, #tantalum and #niobium miners” mining.com • 1 min read

Cesium Wars: Why Are China and North America Fighting Over This Rare Metal? | OilPrice.com “#Cesium bromide is also used in infrared detectors, optics, photoelectrical cells, scintillation counters, and spectrometers. Critical use goes beyond this, as well, with #cesium isotopes necessary for maintaining atomic resonance frequency standards in atomic clocks” oilprice.com • 17 min read

Bill Gates’ venture firm, with backing from Jeff Bezos and Jack Ma, just minted a $1 billion A.I. unicorn that uses machine learning for mining rare earth metals crucial.. "KoBold, founded in 2018, uses machine learning to look for deposits of metals that are crucial to the construction of batteries for electric vehicles—specifically #lithium, #nickel, #cobalt, and #copper." finance.yahoo.com • 2 min read

A once-shuttered California mine is trying to transform the rare-earth industry “This quarter, MP Materials plans to begin separating #rareearths at Mountain Pass — the first time this key processing step will have occurred in the United States since 2015. “ grist.org • 9 min read

Visualizing the World’s Largest Lithium Producers "#Lithium has become essential in recent years, primarily due to the boom in electric vehicles and other clean technologies that rely on lithium batteries." elements.visualcapitalist.com • 2 min read

Mapped: U.S. Mineral Production Value by State in 2022 “This map uses data from the USGS to map and rank U.S. states by the value of their nonfuel #mineral production in 2022.” elements.visualcapitalist.com • 2 min read

The Eerie Story of Low Background Steel Metal enthusiasts? Ever heard of "low background #steel"? edconway.substack.com • 4 min read

Rare Earth Deposit in Sweden Significantly Larger Than Assumed “the company expects it to take 10 to 15 years before the mining of the raw materials needed for the energy and transportation transition can begin” rawmaterials.net • 1 min read

Is Recycling The Answer To Rare Earth Shortages? | OilPrice.com "Currently, only around 1% of #rareearthelements in outdated items are recycled" oilprice.com • 3 min read

Elon Musk Wants a Future of EV Motors Without Rare Earth Metals “Earlier this year, Tesla announced that it would ditch #rare #earth #metals (such as #neodymium) in its motors by some unspecified date, citing supply chain issues and overall toxicity of sourcing them.” popularmechanics.com • 3 min read

Protein can sort rare earth elements better than current mining practices “Biology manages to differentiate #rareearths from all the other metals out there” cosmosmagazine.com • 3 min read

Massive rare earth discoveries could mean a new mining rush in the Mountain West “This [#rareearth] discovery in Wyoming is unusual because the elements are consistently distributed, highly concentrated and not radioactive.” wyomingpublicmedia.org • 5 min read

USGS rejects "critical metal" status to copper “Unlike in Europe, where #copper was recently added to its proposed #Critical Raw Material and Strategic Raw Material lists” mining.com • 3 min read

Mongolia to supply critical metals to France, Macron says “Nearly 80% of Mongolia's total exports go to China, but the #mineral-rich country is working to expand trade and #mining relationships beyond its two big neighbours China and Russia and hopes to become a bridge between Europe and Asia.” reuters.com • 1 min read

Why the world is turning to Greenland’s rare earth metals “Greenland contains some of the largest deposits of rare earth elements (REE) on Earth, such as #yttrium, #scandium, #neodymium and #dysprosium.” innovationnewsnetwork.com • 6 min read

The Energy Transition Has A Metals Problem “Others, such as commodity giant Trafigura, are sounding the alarm for long-term shortages, too, expecting record prices for the #metal, without which the energy transition would be impossible. Yet prices remain weak. And this is a big problem.” oilprice.com • 4 min read

Revolutionary technology to reclaim precious metals from mine water, paving the way for a greener future “introducing an Intelligent Recovery Unit (IRU) that not only enhances process efficiency but also enables the selective recovery of #critical #minerals and #rare #earth #metals” pollutionsolutions-online.com • 3 min read

Red metal rising: Argentina sets lofty sights on global copper top 10 “#Argentina, known better for its Malbec than its mining, has its sights set on becoming a top ten #copper producer by 2030” reuters.com • 4 min read

North Dakota hopes to cash in on rare earth elements “No one has produced #rareearths from #coal before at a commercial scale, but the U.S. Department of Energy seems pretty serious about making it a reality” mprnews.org • 3 min read

Rare Earth Reshore - The Wire China “Can the European Union overcome its deep reliance on China’s #critical #minerals supply chain?” By Luke Patey. thewirechina.com • 17 min read

Why Does the Automotive Industry Need PGMs? “Platinum group metals (PGMs) are a category of metals that include #platinum, #palladium, #rhodium, #ruthenium, #osmium, and #iridium.” Thanks to Visual Capitalist for this infographic. visualcapitalist.com • 2 min read

Mine waste finds new life as source of rare earths "The six projects, processing material from mineral sands, fertiliser and iron ore operations, are targeting output of over 10,000 tonnes of key elements #neodymium and #praseodymium (NdPr) oxide by 2027, analysis by Reuters and consultants Adamas Intelligence showed." reuters.com • 4 min read

Tesla's Pivot Away From Rare Earths Could Push Other Automakers To Follow Suit “#rareearth suppliers remain concerned that Tesla's move could impact the rest of the EV industry. The main worry is that Tesla will influence other automotive companies relying on #rareearths for their EV models to make a similar switch. Currently, the EV industry accounts for about 12% of global #rareearth magnet use” oilprice.com • 3 min read

China's rare earths industry has a raw materials problem "China’s grip on #rareearth production has slipped even as other countries have ramped up their own production. (...) At the same time, its imports of #rareearth raw materials have grown, jumping nearly 40% in 2021, according The Rare Earth Observer, an industry newsletter." qz.com • 3 min read

Council Post: Why The Critical Metals Issue Could Dominate Global Economies Over The Next Decade "384 new mines will be needed to meet #criticalMetal demand by 2035". Article by Renee Grogan forbes.com • 3 min read

Electrification Metals: Investment Case & Supply/Demand Outlook - KraneShares Although at RWMM we favor physical holdings, the following may be of interest for some of our investors/followers. By KraneShares. "There is currently not enough supply of #copper, #aluminum, #nickel, #cobalt, and #lithium to power the energy transition." kraneshares.com • 8 min read

EU Proposes Designating Copper and Nickel as Critical Metals "The European Union proposed classifying #copper and #nickel as critical raw materials in landmark legislation designed to bolster supplies, alongside other metals key to the energy transition." bloomberg.com • 1 min read

The critical raw materials you need to know "They’re in your smartphones and flatscreen TVs, in solar panels and wind turbines, in lamps and pacemakers — even in bicycle frames. " A beautifully illustrated article about #criticalmaterials. Thanks to Antonia Zimmermann and Sarah Anne Aarup politico.eu • 1 min read

North America’s bid to onshore rare earth supply “The world outside China needs more rare earth element mines and processing and separation facilities in order to reduce its dependence on the Far East for critical minerals.” By Luisa Moreno pv-magazine.com • 5 min read

Newly discovered protein supports efficient refining of REEs “a protein which specifically binds #lanthanides – or #rareearth elements – and discriminates them from other minerals and metals” mining.com • 1 min read

New Tesla motor technology could disrupt rare earths industry "Rare earth element companies may face pressure after Tesla unveiled plans this week to develop car motors without key critical minerals (...) such as #neodymium-#praseodymium (NdPr), #erbium and #dysprosium. NdPr is used in the magnets of electric vehicle (EV) motors." mining.com • 3 min read

Gold & precious metals Snapshot: Eight companies to watch - The Northern Miner For you metal enthusiasts. You might be interested in precious metal stocks. "Gold and other precious metals play a critical role in modern society — both as a store of value and for achieving a low-carbon future. More mining companies are responding to the demand for these resources. Here’s a glimpse of eight companies exploring for gold and precious metals." northernminer.com • 13 min read

Significant deposit of rare earth metals discovered in Finnish Lapland "In addition to #iron, #phosphate and #rareearth #metals, the deposit contains #niobium, #hafnium, #tantalum, #manganese, #vermiculite, #zircon, #copper, #silver and #uranium." "study indicates that the deposit could produce a minimum of 10 per cent of all #rareearth metals required annually for permanent magnet production in Europe" helsinkitimes.fi • 2 min read

Positive results for battery and precious metal exploration Ryberg Project in East #Greenland :“#nickel, #copper, and #platinum group elements (PGE) have been identified in drillholes, as well as orogenic #gold.” innovationnewsnetwork.com • 11 min read

How AI Is Uncovering Essential Metals for EVs, Green Innovation “speed up the discovery of geologic deposits as well as novel #metal formulations” thomasnet.com • 8 min read

Trafigura faces $577 million hit after shipments of nickel it bought did not contain the metal “a writedown in excess of half a billion dollars after discovering that shipments of #nickel that it purchased failed to contain the metal” Retail investors might want to remember the old saying: “If you can’t hold it, you don’t own it. “. At RWMM we offer you a way to “hold what is rare” so you know you “own what is rare” and can sleep well. financialpost.com • 3 min read

Imperial Mining Patents its Process in Next Steps to Become a Leading-edge Supplier of Scandium and Rare Earths “Imperial Mining Patents its Process in Next Steps to Become a Leading-edge Supplier of #Scandium and #RareEarths” investorintel.com • 4 min read

Norway Finds a Treasure Trove of Minerals in Its Seabed "The Directorate’s study found that there were more than 40 million tons of #copper in remote areas of the Norwegian Sea and Greenland Sea. The study also discovered #cobalt, #magnesium, and #niobium." gizmodo.com • 2 min read

LME ends chaotic year with metal stockpiles perilously low “Available inventories of the six main #metals traded on the LME plunged by two thirds in 2022, with #aluminum’s 72% decline accounting for the bulk of the drop, while #zinc shrank by 90%. Collectively, inventories not already marked for withdrawal hit the lowest level in data going back to 1997” mining.com • 1 min read

Microsoft and ArcelorMittal back MIT spinout trying to green the $1.6 trillion steel industry “Boston Metal, which spun out of Massachusetts Institute of Technology announced a $120 million funding round, led by the international #steel giant ArcelorMittal and with participation from software behemoth Microsoft” cnbc.com • 5 min read

EU metals industry urges aid to rival US green energy package EU metal reacts to USA Inflation Reduction Act. "Eurometaux — which represents major European [metal] producers including Glencore Plc, Boliden AB, and Aurubis AG — urged the EU to take inspiration from President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, which includes billions of dollars of subsidies to spur domestic investment in electric vehicles and renewable energy." "EU leaders are set to meet in Brussels on next month to discuss a response to the controversial US act, with some pushing for a “made in Europe” approach to help bolster domestic companies. French President Emmanuel Macron called for an EU package amounting to 2% of its economic output to rival the $370 billion US plan." " mining.com • 1 min read

Increasing global production of rare earths “There are large resources of #rareearths in #Greenland, and it is usually stated that there are approximately ten deposits. Three of these are being developed: Sarfartôq, Kvanefjeld, and Kringlerne.” innovationnewsnetwork.com • 7 min read

The Top 10 Best and Worst-Performing Commodities of 2022 Lithium, nickel, titanium, platinum, molybdenum, iron, gold: the winning metals of 2022. How, is it time to invest in the 2022 biggest discounts: Magnesium, tin, cobalt, zinc, aluminum, copper? elements.visualcapitalist.com • 4 min read

How rare earth elements’ hidden properties make modern technology possible “it’s probably safe to say: We’re going to need more #rareearths.” By Nikk Ogasa sciencenews.org • 8 min read

Sweden's LKAB finds Europe's biggest deposit of rare earth metals “LKAB said on Thursday it had identified mineral resources of more than one million tonnes of #rareearth oxides in the #Kiruna area, the largest known such deposit in Europe.” reuters.com • 2 min read

Could Africa replace China as the world’s source of rare earth elements? "Africa’s full potential in #rareearths is largely untapped given low levels of exploration. (...) the mining exploration budget in sub-Saharan Africa was the second lowest in the world—roughly half that of Latin America, Australia, and Canada—despite having triple the surface area of Canada and Australia." www.brookings.edu • 3 min read

This simple metal alloy is the toughest material on Earth “the highest toughness ever recorded of any material while investigating a metallic alloy made of #chromium, #cobalt, and #nickel (CrCoNi). The metal is not only incredibly strong (meaning it resists permanent deformation) and exceedingly ductile (which, in materials science, means highly pliable), but it also becomes more ductile and strong as it cools. Contrary to the majority of other materials in use” An article from Tech Explorist techexplorist.com • 5 min read

Which Precious Metal Has Chen Excited for 2023? Chen Lin is a full-time fund manager of his extended family assets. In 2009, he started to write the stock newsletter “What is Chen buying? What is Chen selling?”. #silver #tellurium streetwisereports.com • 9 min read

Visualizing the Metals You Can Buy with $1,000 "Characterized by their natural shine, metals are valued using the two key principles of rarity and their industrial uses, with unique properties such as their appearance or cultural significance also affecting their value." elements.visualcapitalist.com • 4 min read

The Future Value of Disruptive Materials. "#Copper is the largest market while #lithium is the fastest growing" "a closer look at the forecasted market value for 12 disruptive materials, which are seeing increasingly large climate investment." elements.visualcapitalist.com • 4 min read

Electrification: 6 Essential Metals to Watch - KraneShares “KMET tracks the Bloomberg Electrification Metals Index, composed of futures contracts on six essential metals: #aluminum, #copper, #zinc, #lithium, #nickel, and #cobalt. We believe these are the key metals needed for the electrification of the global economy. “ Interesting article by KraneShares. kraneshares.com • 8 min read

For the First Time: Scientists Have Formed a Charged Rare Earth Molecule on a Metal Surface and Rotated It "The rare-earth complexes the researchers assembled were positively charged #Europium base molecules with negatively charged counterions on a gold surface." scitechdaily.com • 4 min read

China Dominates the Rare Earths Market. This U.S. Mine Is Trying to Change That. Great analysis of the situation. Thanks to Lara Seligman at POLITICO. politico.com • 2 min read

Japan, Congo agree to cooperate on stable supply of rare metals “Highly-sought rare metals, such as #cobalt, find use in car #batteries, and #Congo is the world’s top producer of the metal, accounting for 74% of global output in 2021.” mining.com • 1 min read

Hitachi Metals developing EV motors with less China rare earths “The company is now developing ferrite-based #magnets, which are about one-fifth the price of the #neodymium magnets and made mainly from widely available #iron oxide.” “Hitachi Metals has devised a way to position and populate ferrite #magnets in EV motors to increase motor-rotation speed and achieve the same maximum output as their #neodymium counterparts.” “#Neodymium magnets were invented in the 1980s by Masato Sagawa, a former employee of Sumitomo Special Metals, which was later absorbed by Hitachi Metals.” asia.nikkei.com • 3 min read

Ship traded rare metals by traveling in Middle East 2,000 years - study "researchers in the study have found out that communities of pastoralists in Uzbekistan today produced a third of the #tin found aboard the ship. The other two-thirds are from the Taurus Mountains of Turkey." jpost.com • 2 min read

Innovative "Vacuum Cleaner" Collects Rare Metals from the Sea Floor “In the midst of increased demand, the mining industry is looking for innovative ways to obtain #raremetals such as #nickel, #cobalt, #copper, and #manganese for renewable energy systems and electronics.” thomasnet.com • 2 min read

Fortifying materials for a more resilient world “Currently, it’s estimated that the accumulated effects of #metals corrosion cost the U.S. economy hundreds of billions of dollars every year.” news.asu.edu • 5 min read

The Metals Inside Your iPhone Are More Precious Than You Thought: Here's Why "If you use an iPhone, an REE called #lanthanum helps make sure the screen has a vivid color pop, while #neodymium and #dysprosium are credited for helping the device vibrate, among other uses." cnet.com • 6 min read

Delving into shear deformation could lead to next-gen metals “the research team looked at #copper. They noticed how shear deformation creates nanotwins—structural features that make #metals stronger. Observing an alloy of copper and #niobium, they found that shear deformation affects atoms differently inside the #copper and #niobium phases of the metal mixture” mining.com • 2 min read

Delving into shear deformation could lead to next-gen metals “the research team looked at #copper. They noticed how shear deformation creates nanotwins—structural features that make #metals stronger. Observing an alloy of copper and #niobium, they found that shear deformation affects atoms differently inside the #copper and #niobium phases of the metal mixture” mining.com • 2 min read

Charted: The Most Expensive Battery Metals “#Cobalt was by far the most expensive battery metal until late 2021, which was when #lithium prices hit an inflection point, heading towards all-time highs.” elements.visualcapitalist.com • 4 min read

Norwegian-Swedish Cooperation on Rare Earth Metals: Marks the Beginning of Something New in Europe “#LKAB plans to extract #earth elements as a byproduct of #iron ore production.” highnorthnews.com • 1 min read

Germany Considers National Fund in Scramble For Raw Materials - BNN Bloomberg “Germany is particularly exposed as it needs to import 39 out of 46 strategic raw materials [...] Germany is already offering loan guarantees to commodity trading houses to buy energy and key #metals. Trafigura Group, the world’s biggest trader of #copper, has already agreed to supply German customers with non-Russian metals for the next five years” bnnbloomberg.ca • 2 min read

They made a material that doesn't exist on Earth. That's only the start of the story. “a combination of two base metals, #nickel and #iron, which were cooled over millions of years as meteors tumbled through space. That process created a unique compound with a particular set of characteristics that make it ideal for use in the high-end permanent magnets that are an essential component of a vast range of advanced machines, from electric vehicles to space shuttle turbines. The compound is called #tetrataenite” www.npr.org • 6 min read

Canada orders China to divest from country’s mining companies “Move comes after ‘multi-step’ review by Canada’s national security and intelligence agencies [...] Critical minerals and metals include #lithium, #cadmium, #nickel and #cobalt.” theguardian.com • 3 min read

China to tighten import thresholds for impurities in metal concentrates, sources say “Given its major smelting capacity, China relies heavily on overseas raw materials for its base metals production. Last year, the country imported 23.4 million tonnes of #copper concentrate, 3.6 million tonnes of #zinc concentrate and 1.2 million tonnes of #lead concentrate.” Article by Wing Yan Julian Luk fastmarkets.com • 3 min read

Researchers develop Play-Doh-like material that conducts electricity like metal “study’s lead author Jiaze Xie began experimenting with #nickel atoms, which he strung like pearls into a string of molecular beads made of #carbon and #sulphur” mining.com • 3 min read

Platinum in the Buy Zone- Leave Room to Add Here is a complete analysis of platinum price. Thanks to Andrew Hecht. barchart.com • 1 min read

Here's what the world mined in 2021 in one infographic “The major use of #rhenium, one of the rarest metals in terms of production, is in superalloys that are critical for engine turbine blades in aircraft and gas turbine engines. The petroleum industry uses it in #rhenium-#platinum catalysts to produce high-octane gasoline for vehicles. [...] #lithium production has more than doubled since 2016 [...] #Indium is another interesting metal on this list. Most of it is used to make #indium #tin oxide, an important component of touchscreens, TV screens, and solar panels.” weforum.org • 1 min read

High Interest Rates Force Precious Metal Prices Lower “However, many global factors, such as the war in Ukraine, energy shortages, and supply chain disruptions continue to pull #metal markets in different directions.” oilprice.com • 2 min read

METALS-Copper prices rise on global supply worries “#Copper prices rose on Monday as global supplies tightened, although its gain was capped by demand uncertainty due to China's stance on COVID-19 curbs and worries around global economic growth. [...] Total copper production in Chile, the world's top #copper producer, fell 10.2% in August to 415,500 tonnes.” nasdaq.com • 2 min read

Can critical metals for renewable energy products be found in existing mines? New research says yes “#Tellurium isn't mined as a solo mineral. Currently, most #tellurium is collected as a by-product from #copper mining.” phys.org • 4 min read

Metal-enriched silkworm silk is one of the strongest materials ever "Dissolving silkworm silk and remaking it in a solution of sugar and #zinc and #iron metal ions has made it stronger than most spider silk, one of the toughest and strongest materials in nature." newscientist.com • 3 min read

Zinc and Copper Jump After LME Bans New Metal From Russian Firm "#Zinc and #copper climbed after the London Metal Exchange said it will restrict new deliveries of the metals from Russia’s Ural Mining & Metallurgical Co. and one of its subsidiaries." ca.finance.yahoo.com • 2 min read

Tin Market Plagued By Bearish Trend “After a nearly two-year-long bullish trend in the #tin market, the tin price recently took a bearish turn. Fed by the pandemic, the #tin price reached an all-time high. However, buyer exhaustion soon overtook the market, leading to price drops.”oilprice.com • 2 min read

Researchers push for using metals to treat infections “[Researchers] demonstrated that 21 highly-active metal compounds containing #cobalt, #nickel, #rhodium, #palladium, #silver, #europium, #iridium, #platinum, #molybdenum and #gold can be used to treat fungal infections.”mining.com • 2 min read

Diversification is the new mining buzzword “#Copper is probably the most strategic metal, and it’s geologically related to #gold,” he said. “So if you want to become a world-leading #gold company in the fullness of time, you are going to end up producing [#copper].”mining.com • 1 min read

A Great Copper Squeeze Is Coming for the Global Economy “Goldman Sachs forecasts that the benchmark London Metal Exchange price will almost double to an annual average of $15,000 a ton in 2025. On Wednesday, copper settled at $7,690 a ton on the LME.”bnnbloomberg.ca • 8 min read

Is China Using Cyberattacks To Maintain Its Rare Earth Dominance? “Lynas, the victim of the latest cyber attack, is actually the world’s largest producer of #rareearths outside China. It already has an operating processing plant in Malaysia and is constructing multiple other facilities in the US and Australia.”oilprice.com • 3 min read

Von der Leyen announces new EU critical minerals legislation “European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Thursday announced the European Critical Raw Materials Act, as the bloc seeks to shore up supplies of #minerals such as #lithium and #rareearths.”miningweekly.com • 1 min read

Metal Prices in Decline - Supply Fears Heighten - MetalMiner “#Iron ore, #aluminum, and #copper have all fallen to varying degrees” “#Copper, in particular, has very dodgy fundamentals, and #aluminum, #zinc, and #copper are all at extremely low inventory levels on the LME and CME. At some stage, the dearth of physical metal and lack of investment in new mining projects will seriously impact raw material supply. “agmetalminer.com • 3 min read

Recycled magnets gain rare metals from WEEE “Called ‘hydrogen processing of magnet scrap’, this was first tested in the laboratory using an old washing machine drum to extract the #rareearth alloys from products such as hard disk drives, speakers and electric motors.”mrw.co.uk • 2 min read

Platinum and cousins you probably never heard of frame low-carbon future “Why should we care about the six "ums:" #platinum, #ruthenium, #rhodium, #palladium, #osmium and #iridium?” "Many of [their] applications are not widely known, such as preservation of food freshness, non-invasive diagnostics, pacemakers, and most importantly, in reducing carbon emissions in many traditional industries."shine.cn • 4 min read

Sask. creates first rare earth ingots in North America “now one of only four jurisdictions in the entire world with this capability and the only one in North America,”saskatoon.ctvnews.ca • 2 min read

Kazakhstan poised for rare earth boom "These unique minerals [#rareearths] appear to be concentrated in their geological distribution in the heart of north-Central Asia. That makes the neighbour of western China – #Kazakhstan – the prime locations to look for them."intellinews.com • 10 min read

A Supplier of Rare Earth Metals Turns to Greenland in Bid to Cut Reliance on Russia “[Toronto-based] Neo [Performance Materials ]said on Monday that it is acquiring #rareearth mining rights in Greenland from Hudson Resources, a tiny mining company based in Vancouver. The acquisition marks the first move into #rareearthmining by Neo, whose Magnequench division is the corporate descendant of a former General Motors subsidiary that pioneered many modern magnetic applications of #rareearthmetals in the 1980s.”nytimes.com • 6 min read

Column: US hits the EV accelerator to cut Chinese metals ties “At least 40% of the #criticalmetals in the battery – #lithium, #nickel, #cobalt, and #manganese – must come from the United States or a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) partner. That percentage rises to 80% in 2026.”mining.com • 4 min read

Dumpster diver: how I find rare-earth metals in industrial landfill After metal Magnet Fishing 🎣, it’s time for Dumpster Diving! 🤿 “#magnets make up just 2–7% of the weight of most motors, but hold the real economic value, because they contain the #rareearth elements”nature.com • 2 min read

Magnet fishing got people hooked, but China and green tech are threatening its future Ever heard of magnet 🧲 fishing 🎣? “The element attracting all this attention is #neodymium, a difficult-to-produce #rareearth metal mostly mined in China”npr.org • 7 min read

The CHIPS Act Is A Boon For American Innovation "The legislation is a direct response to the semiconductor supply chain issues magnified by the pandemic — the goal is to ensure that American companies have access to the advanced chips necessary to innovate in key fields like artificial intelligence, biotechnology, and 5G. And while the chip shortage is easing in some sectors, plenty of companies are still struggling to get the #silicon they need."forbes.com • 3 min read

China Is Moving Rapidly Up the Rare Earth Value Chain “In short, China aims to transform itself from the largest producer and refiner of #rareearth elements to being the world’s major high value-add manufacturer of the clean energy products dependent on #rareearthmetals and other #criticalminerals.”brinknews.com • 5 min read

Transition metal catalyst discovery could help establish renewably generated electricity “A far more abundant and less costly metal, #molybdenum, could potentially take #platinum's place in the process”phys.org • 3 min read

Battery makers seek price hikes on lack of Russia rare metals “Rising prices for resources and supply disruptions could have far-reaching effects for a range of industries.“asia.nikkei.com • 4 min read

Experts cast doubts over UK’s first rare earths processing site “The government’s first undisclosed investment to strengthen its supply of critical minerals goes into a project run by London-listed Pensana to turn rare earth oxides into metals — crucial ingredients for magnets needed in the automotive and renewable sectors.“ft.com • 4 min read

Huge rare earth reserve discovered in Turkey, but experts caution that ‘grade is king’ "The world’s second-largest rare earth reserve has been discovered in Turkey [...] The site in the central Anatolia region contains 694 million tons of rare earth reserves,[­...] The world’s largest rare earth field is an 800-million-ton site in China"marketwatch.com • 4 min read

How Strong Are Rare Earth Magnets? Do you know your magnet metals? #Neodymium, #iron, #boron, #samarium, #cobalt, #aluminum, #nickel, #strontium, #barium. elements.visualcapitalist.com • 3 min read

New device allows for production of chameleon metal - MINING.COM “Researchers have invented a device that electronically converts one #metal so that it behaves like another for use as a catalyst in chemical reactions.” “The inspiration behind this work is what the group sees as a major barrier to advancing technology: the short supply of #rhodium and #palladium, globally, and their high prices.” mining.com • 3 min read

New device allows for production of chameleon metal. “Researchers have invented a device that electronically converts one #metal so that it behaves like another for use as a catalyst in chemical reactions.” “The inspiration behind this work is what the group sees as a major barrier to advancing technology: the short supply of #rhodium and #palladium, globally, and their high prices.” mining.com • 3 min read

Metals rebound from their worst week in a year on China optimism. “Industrial metals are still on track for the biggest quarterly plunge since the 2008 financial crisis amid rising fears of an industrial slowdown across major economies.” bnnbloomberg.ca • 2 min read

US companies move to break China's dominance of rare earth industry. At RWMM we prefer tangible assets and physical holding. But rare metal enthusiasts/investors might want to keep an eye on company stocks related to the resource. freightwaves.com • 6 min read

A blue pigment loved by artists could suck up precious metals from your discarded cell phone. “the team led by Jun Onoe, Professor of Engineering at Nagoya University, showed that Prussian Blue pigments could trap rare metals like #molybdenum, as well as #ruthenium, #rhodium, and #palladium” zmescience.com • 4 min read

Researchers figure out how to make solid-state batteries charge faster, last longer. “If you use a metal like #tungsten or #molybdenum that doesn’t alloy with #lithium, the performance which you get from the cell is even better.” mining.com • 3 min read

The US is heavily reliant on China and Russia for its ammo supply chain. Congress wants to fix that. “The mineral #antimony is critical to the defense-industrial supply chain and is needed to produce everything from armor-piercing bullets and explosives to nuclear weapons as well as sundry other military equipment, such as night vision goggles.” defensenews.com • 3 min read

The Toronto Stock Exchange Launches Canadian S&P/TSX Battery Metals Index for Insights and Tracking - MiningFeeds. "Common battery metals include #lithium, #cobalt, and #nickel." miningfeeds.com • 2 min read

London Metal Exchange hit with two U.S. lawsuits over nickel trading chaos. “The LME suspended trading activity and cancelled #nickel trades on March 8 due to a spike in volatility, which saw nickel prices double to a record $100,000 per ton in the space of a few hours.” cnbc.com • 3 min read

The fight for rare Earth minerals. "One aspect competition is heating up between China and the US is the race for rare earth minerals. These 17 metallic minerals make up almost everything electronic, including the US military’s most important weapons like F-35 fighter jets, M1Abrams tanks, surface-to-air missiles, hand held radio’s and everything in between." foxnews.com • 4 min read

Shrinking stocks likely mean more LME metal price volatility. “wild price swings for metals such as #copper, #tin, and #zinc are likely to be a feature of the market for some time” mining.com • 2 min read

EVs vs. Gas Vehicles: What Are Cars Made Out Of? "#Lithium, #nickel, #cobalt, #manganese, and #graphite are all crucial to battery performance, longevity, and energy density. Furthermore, EVs can contain more than a mile of #copper wiring inside the stator to convert electric energy into mechanical energy." elements.visualcapitalist.com • 3 min read

EVs surpass phones as top driver of cobalt demand. "Electric vehicles (EVs) overtook smartphones and other high-tech devices for the first time last year as the main driver of #cobalt demand" mining.com • 2 min read

South Korea hunts tungsten treasure in race for rare minerals. “The mine in Sangdong, 180 km southeast of Seoul, is being brought back from the dead to extract the rare metal that’s found fresh value in the digital age in technologies ranging from phones and chips to electric vehicles and missiles.” mining.com • 6 min read

Our northern neighbor has begun supplying the world with minerals critical to a greener economy with the country's first #rareearth mine delivering concentrated ore. "First Canadian rare earth mine starts shipping concentrate from N.W.T. " cbc.ca • 3 min read

In coal country, a new chance to clean up a toxic legacy. “The potential to recover rare earths from acid mine drainage and other streams in the coal production and combustion process represent an example of a broader set of potentially unconventional but transformative sources for securing access to rare earth elements,” washingtonpost.com • 1 min read

Letter: West must exploit its own rare earths deposits. “Mark Cutifani, retiring chief executive of Anglo-American, recently named The Rare Metals War (2018) by Guillaume Pitron as his favourite book.” ft.com • Subscription may be required

Metal demand seen surging for decades on strength of energy transition, World Bank says. “The adoption of low-carbon power generation “implies a permanent increase in demand for #copper, #nickel, #cobalt, and #lithium, and an eventual drop in the use of fossil fuels.”” mining.com • 1 min read

Rare Earths Supply Is About To Get Much Tighter. “ Clearly, for the US, the supply-chain mess, the pandemic, and the Ukraine conflict have served to highlight the importance of #rareearth independence. Now, we need only wait to hear the final word on China’s counter-move. “ oilprice.com • 4 min read

The Key Minerals in an EV Battery. “For example, NMC batteries, which accounted for 72% of batteries used in EVs in 2020 (excluding China), have a cathode composed of #nickel, #manganese, and #cobalt along with #lithium.” “The EV battery market is still in its early hours, with plenty of growth on the horizon.” elements.visualcapitalist.com • 2 min read

Green Metals Have Colorful Long-Term Investment Thesis. There are many ways to invest in metals. ETFs are a good way to diversify. However, at RWMM, we believe that there is nothing like holding the physical. Still, here is an article about ETFs: “it takes some old school materials and metals to drive the green energy revolution” etfdb.com • 2 min read

Even the Densest Metal Doesn't Exceed USPS Shipping Weight Limit. Fun fact: “#Osmium is twice as dense as lead and about three times as dense as iron” nerdist.com • 3 min read

China dominates the rare earth element market: What is US government doing to increase global supply? “Australia is the second-largest supplier but only accounts for about eleven percent of the total market.“ en.as.com • 5 min read

The top 50 biggest mining companies in the world. Metal enthusiasts? You might also be interested in who's mining them. "Extreme volatility on metal and mining markets continued into 2022 amid historically low stockpiles of metal on global exchanges, but for most sectors the risks remained on the upside. #Copper prices again entered record territory, #iron ore prices climbed to $150 a tonne after dipping to double digits late last year, and industrial metals including #nickel, #tin and #zinc shot up." mining.com • 7 min read

‘Mr. Lithium’ warns there’s not enough battery metal to go around. "You can build a battery factory in two years, but it takes up to a decade to bring on a #lithium project. It’s not a #commodity; it’s a specialty chemical." mining.com • 3 min read

Are You Recycling Your Metal Cans the Right Way? Here's What to Do. RWMM wishes all metal enthusiasts a beautiful Earth Day. Here is a related article. "From canned food to soda and aerosol cans, all metal cans -- including aluminum and steel -- are infinitely recyclable." cnet.com • 2 min read

70 Years of Semiconductors. "#Silicon and #germanium transistors have been around since the 1950s when vacuum tubes were king. (...) #Silicon has been the mainstay since the early ’60s, bumping #germanium out of the way over time." electronicdesign.com • 3 min read

Biden invokes defence act to boost US energy transition metals and minerals supply. “Russia is the lead supplier of #silicon to the US and is a top four source for #aluminum, #chromium, #lithium, #palladium, and #scandium. “ rechargenews.com • 3 min read

An Insider’s Look at the World’s Rarest Precious Metal. “Despite being the world’s rarest precious metal, #osmium is still relatively unknown. The metal, over 1,500 times rarer than gold, boasts a variety of exceptional qualities, among them being that it is the densest element known to man.” blog.dupontregistry.com • 2 min read

Research team led by Kyoto Univ. makes world's 1st alloy mixing all 8 precious metals. "The eight precious metals are #gold, #silver, #platinum, #palladium, #rhodium, #iridium, #ruthenium and #osmium. All precious metals are rare and corrosion resistant. There are combinations that do not mix well like water and oil, and it had been believed to be difficult to combine all of them." mainichi.jp • 2 min read

Palladium Extends Gains After Suspension of Russian Refiners. "The precious metal’s latest rise, following a 8.7% surge on Friday, comes after the invasion of Ukraine and the sanctions that followed saw prices soar to a record last month. Russia produces about 40% of freshly mined palladium, which is mostly used in catalytic converters for gasoline-powered vehicles." bnnbloomberg.ca • 2 min read

The world's top 10 largest copper producers in 2021. “With 1,728 ktonnes of copper mined in 2021, Chilean mining behemoth Codelco is the largest #copper producer worldwide.” kitco.com • 2 min read

South Korea pushes for recycling of rare metals. “A new international initiative is promoting the recycling of rare metals such as tungsten and molybdenum” mining.com • 2 min read

Iron ore may see structural shift on lack of new supply, decarbonisation. “Much of the iron ore debate focuses on the outlook for demand in China but bubbling in the background are two factors likely to cause a structural shift in the market for the steel raw material – the lack of new supply and decarbonization.” mining.com • 4 min read

Record-breaking molecular magnet. “researchers have created what they believe are the most magnetic molecules ever made” cen.acs.org • 3 min read

A well-known iron-based magnet is also a potential quantum information material. “a closer look at a class of magnets, iron hexaferrites, which have been known since the 1950s, to see if they could extend their properties and performance” phys.org • 4 min read

The World's Largest Nickel Mining Companies. “Needed for the manufacturing of electric vehicles, wind turbines, and nuclear power plants, nickel is also primarily used to make stainless steel alloys more resistant to corrosion and extreme temperatures.” elements.visualcapitalist.com • 3 min read

Steel Is the Other Big Commodity Shock from the War in Ukraine. “One reason for the price spike is the sheer size of the Russian and Ukrainian steel industries. Russia is the world’s third biggest steel exporter, behind only China and Japan, while Ukraine is the eighth largest. “ bloomberg.com • 1 min read

Insane lithium price rally continues with “little relief in sight”. “Lithium prices have jumped across the board over the past year on the back of heavy demand from the automotive sector” mining.com • 2 min read

Sanctioned Russian nickel could slow global EV adoption, report. “Russia was the third-largest nickel producer in 2021, producing over 200,000 tonnes. As nickel is used in the production of EV batteries, any sanctions placed on Russian nickel will cause EV manufacturing prices to increase further, threatening adoption and decarbonization.” mining.com • 2 min read

Mapped: U.S. Mineral Production, by State. “This includes metals like copper, iron ore, and zinc” elements.visualcapitalist.com • 3 min read

LME Halts Nickel Trading After Unprecedented 250% Spike. “Nickel, used in stainless steel and electric-vehicle batteries, surged as much as 250% in two days to trade briefly above $100,000 a ton early Tuesday” bloomberg.com • 1 min read

The 50 Minerals Critical to U.S. Security. "Much of the increase in the new list is the result of splitting the rare earth elements and platinum group elements into individual entries rather than including them as “mineral groups.” In addition, the 2022 list of critical minerals adds nickel and zinc to the list while removing helium, potash, rhenium, and strontium." elements.visualcapitalist.com • 3 min read

Palladium price highest in four months amid Ukraine-Russia crisis. The crisis has turned into war now. Let’s hope for peace in Ukraine, sooner rather than later. mining.com • 2 min read

Graphene could replace rare metal used in mobile phone screens. “Most homes will have many items containing indium, it's used in flatscreen TVs, solar panels, as well as LED lights in our homes.” phys.org • 2 min read

Commodities and the Russia-Ukraine crisis. “Russia isn't just an important supplier of oil and gas, it's also a sizeable producer of #nickel, #copper, #palladium and #platinum.” think.ing.com

Red Mountain Mining confirms sought-after heavy rare earths at Mt Mansbridge. “This breakthrough comes amid a background of tightening Chinese control of rare earths, now being put into effect by the merger of the three producers in China” smallcaps.com.au • 2 min read

Hold That Tesla! Inflation Will Be Made of Aluminum. “The fight against climate change — with its rush for the light metal coupled with the shutdown of the dirty power sources that helped produce it — has turned the trade upside down. It’s crippling supply, particularly in China. The result is the hottest aluminum market in 30 years.” Bloomberg.com

New discovery on liquid metal alloys may lead to high-efficiency electronics. “According to the scientists, the strange cyclic divergent and convergent growth, called oscillatory bifurcation, is rare and has not been observed in solidification structures prior to this new study.” mining.com • 2 min read

How the Expansion of Megacities Will Boost Metal Markets. “this means more steel, more copper, more aluminum, and more cement are needed” elements.visualcapitalist.com • 3 min read

Tin price outlook dims in 2022 – report - MINING.COM. “Tin prices peaked at $39,159 per tonne in November 2021, soaring by 79% from the beginning of that year. The spike was driven by a shortage resulting from sharply heightened demand from the electronics sector, where tin is used for circuit board manufacturing” mining.com • 2 min read

Financial spillover effect more intense between gold, silver - MINING.COM. “The new research, assessed the relationship between the returns of nine precious metals: gold, silver, palladium, platinum, nickel, lead, zinc, copper, and aluminum.” mining.com • 2 min read

Antimony selenosulfide solar cell with 10.7% efficiency. “the new cell is the most efficient PV device ever to be built based on antimony.” pv-magazine.com • 2 min read

Lithium Prices Surge on EV Demand from China. “By the first week of 2022, prices for lithium carbonate, a key ingredient in lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries, reached a new high of 300,000 yuan or nearly $47,500 per ton in China.” elements.visualcapitalist.com • 3 min read

The EU wants to end its dependence on China for rare earth metals. ““We import lithium for electric cars, platinum to produce clean hydrogen, silicon metal for solar panels,” said European Commission President Ursula von der Leye” trtworld.com • 4 min read

How Metals Prices Performed in 2021. “year-over-year return on metals prices from January 1 to December 31 of 2021” “the world’s reopening resulted in unprecedented demand for base and energy metals” elements.visualcapitalist.com • 4 min read

Ferroglobe unit sets plan to restart silicon metal facility in Selma - Alabama NewsCenter. “Alabama officials announced Globe Metallurgical Inc. (GMI), a subsidiary of Ferroglobe PLC, a leading producer of silicon metal and specialty alloys, is moving forward with a plan to restart an idled silicon metal facility in Selma.” “Silicon metals are used for a variety of industrial purposes, including the production of silicon wafers that end up in photovoltaic solar panels.” rss.alabamanewscenter.com • 3 min read

Rhodium price on the march again as demand from auto sector rises - MINING.COM. "Some automakers noted that the global chip shortage is starting to ease, suggesting that vehicle production will start to recover after 2021’s cutbacks, pushing up demand for automotive catalysts — and rhodium along the way." mining.com • 2 min read

Selective separation could help alleviate critical metals shortage. “Current methods of rare metal separation rely on large quantities of energy, water, acids, and organic solvents which have costly environmental impacts” news.mit.edu • 4 min read

Infographic: Visualizing the Critical Metals in a Smartphone. “most smartphones can carry roughly 80% of the stable elements on the periodic table” visualcapitalist.com • 2 min read

The Year of Critical Supply Chains – Rawmaterials.net Review 2021. "The main shortage in the past year was of semiconductor chips. Numerous sectors were affected, but the automotive industry suffered particularly severely from the shortage of electronic components that control a wide range of functions in modern vehicles." rawmaterials.net • 5 min read

The World's Largest Nickel Mining Companies. “Nickel has long been an important mineral for batteries, plating, and steelmaking, but it was only recently added to the USGS’s proposed critical minerals list.” elements.visualcapitalist.com • 3 min read

China Rare Earth Group Established. "The consolidation is expected to ease competitive pressures between the companies and increase the influence on commodity pricing." rawmaterials.net • 1 min read

“the top 10 largest copper mining companies worldwide based on their reported attributable copper production in Q3 2021.“ Top 10 largest copper mining companies reduced production 2% in Q3 2021 kitco.com • 3 min read

“Rare earth deposits are associated with extinct alkaline volcanoes. These volcanoes are unusual and only exposed in select regions around the world, such as south Greenland.” New tools to unearth rare metals phys.org • 3 min read

“a new kind of microscopic structure that can rapidly mitigate chemical weapons” Concordia researchers develop a tool to neutralize chemical weapons using rare-earth elements concordia.ca • 1 min read

“Will the increasing consumption of nickel by EV battery producers affect its availability for the stainless steel industry?” A new conundrum for stainless steel recyclingtoday.com • 2 min read

“Oxygen, silicon, aluminum, and iron account for 88.1% of the mass of the Earth’s crust, while another 90 elements make up the remaining 11.9%.” Visualizing the Abundance of Elements in the Earth’s Crust elements.visualcapitalist.com • 4 min read

“What’s 14.545 inches across, weighs one ton (around 907kg or 2,000lbs), and just sold to a group of anonymous crypto investors for roughly $250,000?” A one-ton tungsten cube was just bought by a crypto cabal for $250,000 theverge.com • 4 min read

“Auxico Resources Canada has announced the construction of a rare earth refinery in the Colombian city of Santa Marta” Rare Earths Refinery Planned in Colombia rawmaterials.net • 1 min read

Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, is the longest natural sea beach in the world running 150 kilometres (93 mi). “According to the researchers, the cultivation of seaweed on Cox's Bazar beach can create endless reserves of valuable mineral resources. Scientists believe that this could also create a new possibility in the blue-economy.” Seaweeds protect sand dunes of Cox's Bazar beach thefinancialexpress.com.bd • 4 min read

Pursuing automation and efficiency in the recycling of metals. “When recycling platinum-group metals, one needs to think in microscopic terms. These six metals - platinum, palladium, rhodium, iridium, ruthenium and osmium - are used in a large number of products but typically in small quantities.” businesstimes.com.sg • 6 min read

Where in the World Are All the Rare Earths? “As the demand for REEs increases, the world will need tap these reserves. This graphic could provide clues as to the next source of rare earth elements.” elements.visualcapitalist.com • 3 min read

Green Energy Metals: Eight companies with big ambitions. “companies are rich with ideas for finding lithium, nickel, copper, cobalt, and PGMs wherever they are around the world” mining.com • 20 min read

Aluminium price hits 13-year high. “A major cause of this price hike is the energy-intensive nature of aluminium production. Aluminium has the highest emissions per dollar intensity of any metal, at 10.2kg C02e/$” mining-technology.com • 2 min read

The Consumer Electronics Industry's "Rare" Problem. “Will televisions be manufactured without built-in speakers?” outsiderclub.com • 6 min read

How Refractory Metals are Used in Aerospace and Defense azom.com • 3 min read

This alien-like metal may one day power your electronics. “Aside from its ability to absorb light, bismuth makes for an ideal battery replacement because it’s completely nontoxic.” theverge.com • 2 min read

“Besides gold and silver, other metals have investment value based on industrial demand for them. This precious metals list is known as ‘platinum group metals’ (PGMs), and includes platinum, palladium, ruthenium, rhodium, osmium and iridium.”. Precious metals forecast: Interest rate hikes and the market capital.com • 2 min read

“Cantor and colleagues found areas within the alloys they made where a single phase predominated. That phase consisted of five metals: iron, chromium, manganese, nickel, and cobalt, each at 20 atomic percent and arranged in a face-centered-cubic (fcc) crystal structure.”. cen.acs.org • 1 min read

“China accounts for 60% of the world's production of rare earths according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The top export destinations are Japan (49% by value) followed by the U.S. (15%), according to Chinese media.”. Liquid metal helps convert CO2 into battery, manufacturing resources - MINING.COM asia.nikkei.com • 3 min read

“a cheap new way to capture and convert CO2 emissions using liquid gallium”. Liquid metal helps convert CO2 into battery, manufacturing resources - MINING.COM mining.com • 2 min read

Do you have a new idea on how to use thousands of Troy ounces of palladium a year? www.miningmagazine.com

Silicon’s 300% Surge Throws Another Price Shock at the World. bloomberg.com • 1 min read

London Metals Trading Floor Is Fighting to Survive - BNN Bloomberg. bnnbloomberg.ca • 3 min read

All the Metals We Mined in One Visualization. elements.visualcapitalist.com • 3 min read

Vital says its Saskatoon rare earth extraction plant on track for first feed in 2021. kitco.com • 2 min read

Rare metals recovered with whisky-fuelled filtration system. eandt.theiet.org • 5 min read

US Needs 10X More Rare Earth Metals To Hit Biden’s Electric Vehicle Goals. Among light rare earths: neodymium and praseodymium. Among heavies: dysprosium and terbium. forbes.com • 5 min read

Totten Mine workers starting to return to the surface. Our thoughts are with the workers and their families. We are glad that this story ends well. “The mine produces copper, nickel and precious metals and employs about 200 people.” thesudburystar.com • 2 min read

New type of catalyst may help protect supply of precious metals. “nanoclusters of palladium atoms appear to defy the traditional categories” “Exploitation of metals in the form of nanoclusters is one of the most powerful strategies for increasing the active surface area available for catalysis.” mining.com • 1 min read

Goldman Sachs ramps up cobalt trading. “carmakers cannot easily hedge their exposure to battery metals such as cobalt since there is too little trading on exchanges such as the London Metal Exchange.” ft.com • 2 min read

A diversified portfolio makes Namibia Critical Metals an investment vehicle you should not ignore. “Rare earth elements like dysprosium and terbium can be a mouthful, but they are key to the modern economy.” bnnbloomberg.ca • 6 min read

Osmium: The Revolutionary Precious Metal You’ve Never Heard Of. “Osmium, the 76th element of the periodic table, is the most valuable precious metal on Earth. Over 1,500 times rarer than gold, the metal is mined in conjunction with platinum, to a yield of roughly one ounce of osmium for every 10,000 tons of platinum extracted.” blog.dupontregistry.com • 2 min read

Quantum computers are already detangling nature’s mysteries. “If you wrote down one of each of the possible states of thulium per second it would take 20 trillion years – more than a thousand times the age of the universe.” wired.co.uk • 3 min read

How a gold-stibnite restoration in Idaho could add antimony to US supply chain. “The project could lead to the country’s only primary producer of antimony, a critical and strategic mineral. “There is currently no domestic antimony source, and 90% of world supply is controlled by China, Russia and Tajikistan” mining.com • 5 min read

On the road to practical, low-cost superconductors with unexplored materials. “These rare earth elements in the single-crystalline form are able to overcome physical constraints that weaken superconductivity, thereby opening doors to a variety of engineering applications” phys.org • 3 min read

Silicon and rhenium make transverse electricity from heat. “A layered crystal of rhenium and silicon can produce electricity at right angles to heat flowing through it” electronicsweekly.com • 2 min read

Investing in Precious Metals: A Complete Guide. “What’s important is to find reputable companies to protect your investments.” finchannel.com • 6 min read

New sensor able to detect rare earths in acid mine waste. “a luminescent sensor that can detect terbium, one of the rarest of the rare earth elements, in complex environmental samples like acid mine waste” mining.com • 3 min read

Visualizing the Critical Metals in a Smartphone. “most smartphones can carry roughly 80% of the stable elements on the periodic table. But some of the vital metals to build these devices are considered at risk due to geological scarcity, geopolitical issues, and other factors.” elements.visualcapitalist.com • 2 min read

Afghanistan’s Mineral Resources Are a Lost Opportunity and a Threat. “Some reports estimate Afghanistan REE resources are among the largest on earth.” thediplomat.com • 6 min read

The Biggest Mining Companies in the World in 2021. Do you know your miners? Here are presented the world’s top mining companies by market capitalization as of June 22, 2021, and the metals they mine. elements.visualcapitalist.com • 3 min read

The US is digging into its tax toolkit to rebuild its rare earth industry. “a bipartisan bill introduced in the US Congress last week, which would provide tax credits for the domestic production of permanent rare earth magnets” qz.com • 3 min read

Ranked: Top 25 Nations Producing Battery Metals for the EV Supply Chain. "Batteries do not grow on trees—the raw materials for them, known as “battery metals”, have to be mined and refined." elements.visualcapitalist.com • 3 min read

Tokyo 2020: Olympic medals made from old smartphones, laptops. “There was a two-year national effort in Japan to collect enough recycled material to produce about 5,000 bronze, silver, and gold medals for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.” dw.com • 3 min read

How to avoid catalytic converter theft: Tips on protecting your car as thieves target rare metals. “Since the pandemic started, thefts of catalytic converters have soared nationwide as shortages or rare metals caused a spike in prices that have made the devices a particularly enticing target.” usatoday.com • 2 min read

Burundi suspends rare-earth mining in row over riches. “One of those targeted runs the Gakara project, one of the world's richest deposits of rare earths” africanews.com • 2 min read

Can Reddit's silver "apes" beat the market? "The core of the movement is a Reddit community called Wall Street Silver, formed in January at the time WallStreetBets was marshalling an uprising of ordinary people against the financial elites, through coordinated buying of company shares." reuters.com • 7 min read

“Rio Tinto reported a 12% fall in quarterly iron ore shipments on Friday after storms affected its West Australian operations.” Agricultural commodities aren’t the only one affected by weather. Metal mining is also dependent on Mother Nature’s behaviour. www.mining.com • 2 min read

"This extremely rare metal is outperforming all commodities—and Bitcoin, too" fortune.com

“The US said this month it would work with allies to secure the minerals needed for electric vehicle batteries and process them domestically.” financialpost.com • 2 min read

“According to the German Mineral Resources Agency, (...), demand for germanium will grow by a massive 111%. For tantalum, growth is forecast at an even larger 416%, with other ICT elements such as yttrium seeing 659% growth.” investors-corner.bnpparibas-am.com • 5 min read

Reopening of the ring in London. “The London Metal Exchange’s trading ring, pictured in 2018, was closed in response to the Covid-19 pandemic” wsj.com • 2 min read

“Before delving into ways to invest in rare-earth elements, investors should remember that these metals are commodities, which means they're subject to the ups and downs in demand that economic cycles bring.” Good article by Matt Whittaker although it does not mention the possibility of physical investment. money.usnews.com • 5 min read

“Adding a heavy rare earth like dysprosium and sometimes terbium makes the magnet more temperature stable, and suitable for use in offshore wind turbines where maintenance costs are high.” By Mary Hui qz.com • 6 min read

“Tantalum is recognized both as a critical raw material and conflict mineral, and is found in specific high-performance capacitors used for circuit boards and LCD screens.” greenbiz.com • 6 min read

“a nanosecond ytterbium fiber system equipped with a galvanometric scanner to create strokes that combine surface relief with optical effects, creating nine basic colors” advancedsciencenews.com • 3 min read

“a fractionated erbium laser that causes a little bit of damage under the skin to then stimulate collagen production” wellandgood.com • 2 min read

“The resource, called Tellurium, is one of the rarest elements on Earth, and it will be recovered at Rio Tinto's Kennecott mine as a byproduct of copper smelting.” iheart.com • 1 min read

“the metal’s price has been on a tear, rising more than sixfold since early 2016, an increase that’s lifted it above the price of gold” washingtonpost.com • 3 min read

You already own gold and silver? You even have platinum and palladium? Now how about a fifth, a sixth or a seventh metal in your portfolio? At RWMM we have more than 20 metals that are worth more than silver. Start collecting them before inflation hit. visualcapitalist.com • 3 min read

“A partnership between Cody and Thomas Edison led to tungsten from Campo Bonito used directly for Edison’s incandescent electric lights.” tucson.com • 1 min read

“Bismuth (melting point 271.4°C) is melted into a block, sawed into the desired knife shape, carefully re-dipped to coat it in a profusion of crystal forms, and then laboriously filed sharp.” boingboing.net • 1 min read

“newer laser technology optimized for holmium laser enucleation of the prostate (HoLEP) provides significant benefits compared with an earlier system” urologytimes.com • 3 min read

Want to see what it is like to receive a package from RWMM? RWMM is featured on Spegtacular Youtube Channel! youtube.com • 19m27s

“We've taken a look at three global metals, their price drivers and outlook, with a focus on what key mining companies are saying about them” By Nick Hyett, CFA hl.co.uk • 8 min read

“Europe is 75 per cent dependent on imports for almost all metals and up to 100 per cent for some critical minerals.” By Kevin O'Sullivan irishtimes.com • 3 min read

“Iron, which is easily absorbed if you eat meat, but difficult to get from plants, is critical for anemia.” By Andy Corbleygoodnewsnetwork.org

“molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) consists of alternating layers rotated with respect to each other by 180 degrees and held together by weak van der Waals forces” phys.org • 5 min read

“Those unprecedented forms and structures could be very useful.” Enhancing Precious Metal Recovery From Electronic Waste technologynetworks.com • 3 min read

“In the past when the U.S. (and Japan) faced threats to the supply of rare earth minerals, there was a rush to develop alternatives. But once the threat passed and prices from China dropped, alternative sources lost their appeal.” By Willy Shih.forbes.com • 5 min read

“While the mining of rare earth metals is diversifying, 80% of refining still occurs in China. With the demand for rare earths projected to double by 2030, building both mining and refining capacity overseas may prove key in reducing reliance on China.” By Govind Bhutadaelements.visualcapitalist.com • 3 min read

“Vital Metals (ASX: VML) today announced the commencement of mining operations at its Nechalacho rare earths project in Northwest Territories” By Vladimir Basovkitco.com • 2 min read

"According to the US Geological Survey, China accounted for 58 percent of rare-earth production worldwide in 2020, down from around 90 percent some four years ago, as the US and Australia gradually boosted production." globaltimes.cn • 3 min read

“The scientists took tiny crystals of a substance called sodium lutetium fluoride, and introduced atoms of the rare-earth element terbium into these crystals” eurekalert.org • 3 min read

A Nevada Lithium Mine Kicks Off a New Era of US Extraction. “the nation’s largest-known lithium supply” By Maya L. Kapoor for Mother Jones motherjones.com • 9 min read

“Russian researchers analyzed the films that were made up of four elements: sulfur, molybdenum, hydrogen and carbon” azonano.com • 3 min read

“Osmium is a rare precious metal, however, since it can act as a catalyst, a very little amount is needed for reactions in the cancer cell, therefore it could be a sustainable treatment going forward”. eurekalert.org • 3 min read

“Issues that will be factored into the decision include the need for rare earth metals that are used in components of the F-35” news.clearancejobs.com • 4 min read

“The company will design a system of functionally-graded niobium-based alloys suitable for Additive Manufacturing that will be capable of sustaining high-temperature operation, thus increasing fuel efficiency” By Metal Additive Manufacturing magazine metal-am.com • 2 min read

Copper: Critical Today, Tomorrow, and Forever. "From gas-powered cars and electrical vehicles (EVs) to trains and airplanes, copper is an essential part of our daily commute." visualcapitalist.com • 3 min read

Zinc: The Essential, Sustainable, and Versatile Metal. "Zinc is the fourth most used metal in the world behind iron, aluminum, and copper" visualcapitalist.com • 3 min read

Russia develops instrument to search for precious metals on the Moon and Mars. “Once on the surface the device will be used to search for rare earth metals such as gold, silver and platinum, at depths of several tens of centimetres to a metre.” room.eu.com • 4 min read

New process to recycle polyolefinic plastics at low temperature. “They combined ruthenium, a metal in the platinum family, with cerium dioxide, used to polish glass, to produce a catalyst that caused the plastics to react at 473 Kelvin.” canplastics.com • 2 min read

Researchers use niobium, molybdenum to find heat-tolerant alloys for aircraft. “metals containing niobium silicide, which are promising materials that can withstand high temperatures and improve efficiency of gas turbines in power plants and aircraft” mining.com • 2 min read

Five minute fast-charge EVs on the way. “the nanoparticles are based on Germanium, a rare element which was the basis for early solid state electronics” goodwood.com • 1 min read

Tin Market Records Deficit in January to October 2020. “World Bureau of Metal Statistics announced that the tin market recorded a deficit of 18.7 kt during January to October 2020” steelguru.com • 1 min read

BARC Develops India's First Ruthenium 106 Plaque For Effective Eye Cancer Treatment. “The Plaque handling is very much Surgeon-friendly and the preliminary results are very satisfactory” swarajyamag.com • 2 min read

What Is Going On With Rare Earths Going Into Next Year? “Of the 17 rare earth elements, seven consistently trade above $1,000 per kilogram. Three are trading above the six-digit range. Gadolinium oxide is just a moonshot for mining operations. The two next-best rare earth elements to collect — praseodymium oxide and neodymium oxide — are worth roughly around $50,000 per kilogram.” outsiderclub.com • 8 min read

Essential Science: New atomic clock improves measuring time. "The MIT clock is based around 350 atoms of ytterbium, which is the most volatile rare-earth metal. It comes in the form of a soft, malleable silvery metal." digitaljournal.com • 1 min read

The latest magnesium studies pave the way for new biomedical materials. “Magnesium is the lightest metal that can be used in structural applications. Due to its mechanical, thermal and electrical properties as well as biodegradability and the controlled rate of corrosion, it sparks great interest in researchers dealing with biocompatible implants.” phys.org • 5 min read

Solar Panel Waste: The Dark Side of Clean Energy. The good news is : “cells based on nontoxic metals like tin or germanium are approaching the efficiency of the ones with lead.” discovermagazine.com • 5 min read

Best-Performing Metal of COVID-19 (It's Not Gold or Silver). “The price of gold has increased nearly 20% for the year. Meanwhile, silver has rallied over 30% higher. But there's one metal that has gone gangbusters throughout the crisis, with prices rocketing up 200% higher.” energyandcapital.com • 4 min read

Industrial metals prices performing well amid coronavirus. “the migration to a greener future, to less polluting technologies such as electric vehicles, hydrogen fuel and renewable technologies will boost demand for copper, nickel, silver and PGM’s, such as platinum and palladium.” agmetalminer.com • 3 min read

Soaring Metals Prices Signal Bets on Global Economic Recovery. “Prices for copper have risen to their highest level in almost eight years. Iron ore, the main ingredient of steel, is one of the best-performing assets in 2020. Other raw materials, such as aluminum and zinc, have added roughly 15% since the end of September and 40% or more since mid-May.” wsj.com

CRU: The rare earths 'basket problem' is intensifying. “This is the essence of the "basket problem", an issue which has plagued the rare earth mining sector in recent years” prnewswire.com • 3 min read