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The Morning Briefing: Rare earth materials

By | May 21, 2012, 1:51 AM PDT

“The Morning Briefing” is SmartPlanet’s daily roundup of must-reads from the web. This morning we’re reading about rare earth material supply.

1.) U.S. remains dependent on China for rare earth elements. The U.S. military is almost completely dependent on China for the rare earth elements that go into everything from batteries to precision-guided bombs, according to a report by the Congressional Research Service.

2.) Rare-earth half-sandwiches prove rewarding. Bing-Tao Guan and Zhaomin Hou from the RIKEN Advanced Science Institute in Wako, however, have developed a rare-earth catalyst system that promises to make natural product synthesis significantly easier.

3.) GWMG foresees rare earth magnet elements supply shortfall. James Engdahl, President & CEO of Great Western Minerals Group, talks about first mover advantage, the coming production shortfall of rare earths magnet elements, integrated business model minimising commodity risk, and taking our mines into production.

4.) The rise and fall of rare earth materials. If there was ever a poster child for not investing in fads, rare earth metals might be perfect for the role.

5.) UMP to set up rare earth research centre. The growing public interest in rare earth has prompted Universiti Malaysia Pahang (UMP) to set up a Rare Earth Research Centre to enable more research to be done on rare earth unique elements.

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Charlie Osborne

About Charlie Osborne

Charlie Osborne is a contributing editor for SmartPlanet.

Charlie Osborne

Charlie Osborne

Contributing Editor

Charlie Osborne is a freelance journalist and graphic designer based in London. In addition to SmartPlanet, she also writes the iGeneration column for business technology website ZDNet. She holds degrees in medical anthropology from the University of Kent.

Follow her on Twitter.

Charlie Osborne

Charlie Osborne

Charlie Osborne does not have financial holdings that would influence how or what she covers.

She writes for SmartPlanet and is not an employee of CBS.

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Plenty of rare earth its just not so easy to dispose of residue.
Its a filthy business full of that useless thorium. Its not like theres any use for energy when you can pay big bucks for oil and coal. Plenty here and in Canada its just nasty.
Posted by Altotus
21st May 2012
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