Scientists developing climate-friendly method to process ‘rare earth’ minerals; could make U.S. less reliant on foreign metals source:News wiseNewswise — CLEVELAND—A Case Western Reserve scientist is working on a more sustainable way to chemically transform so-called “rare earth” minerals into metals for renewable energy applications.If successful, the new process could one day help increase American production of the metals, which are now primarily imported from China. Rare earth metals are crucial for making not only wind turbines and electric cars, but also items like smartphones, comp...
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source:FreethinkThe United States’ reliance on China for rare earth elements could soon come to an end, thanks to a new process that pulls the valuable metals from the ash left over when we burn coal.Why it matters: The 17 rare earth elements aren’t actually rare — they’re all more common than gold, and one is more abundant than copper. But getting our hands on them is difficult because they’re widely dispersed in Earth’s crust and hard to extract through mining.That’s a problem because we need rare earth elements to make a lot of products, from smartphones and satellites to electric cars and ...
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source:The West AnstralianNorthern Minerals has been refining its heavy rare earths processing systems using a specialised pilot plant that could see the company become the world’s first serious heavy rare earth producer outside of China. Northern has an expanding dysprosium and terbium resource base at its flagship Browns Range project. Both products are critical in the manufacture of permanent magnets in an electric vehicle motor.Only 5 operating heavy rare earths processing facilities exist worldwide - and they are all in China. Northern is attempting to break the Chinese monopoly with its ...
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source:New AtlasRadio waves don't travel well through water, which is why devices such as ROVS (remotely operated vehicles) have to be linked to their operator via a communications cable. According to a new study, however, solar panels may soon allow for practical underwater light-based communications.First of all, various groups have already used pulses of laser light to transmit data underwater. The functionality of such systems has been limited, though, due to the fact that the transmitter which emits the light has to be precisely aligned with the photodiode that receives it. Because of...
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