Posted on 10/20/2021 2:00:56 PM PDT by Pilsner
A critical element in everything from engines to bodies is in short supply
... Essentially, you can’t make cars without aluminum. You can’t work with aluminum without using magnesium. And as of December, you may not be able to work with magnesium much — if at all.
85% of the world’s supply comes from ... China, ... (which) just ordered 35 of its 50 production facilities to shut down. The remaining 15 have been told to scale back operations by half, leaving production drastically reduced.
(Excerpt) Read more at jalopnik.com ...
Australia and Guinea were the 2 leading suppliers through 2019...maybe China bought their mines and thus these sources are counted as China? I question the source as I can’t see how China could have unseated both of them and became the frontrunner.
Well the pursuit of low cost auto parts went:
US >> Mexico >> China
but now I see lots of stuff coming out of Vietnam, Indonesia, and India.
Because the Chinese are no longer at the bottom of the wage totem pole.
Same thing with fabric clothes and shoes.
Arkansas has bauxite in a 270 square mile region but mining waz reduced to a trickle in 1981 for some reason. About that time Reagan found that US strategic bauxite reserves were short and so signed for purchasing the shortfall from Jamaica.
There is some global warming interest and speculation at work with these particular resources....
Snip " In a nutshell, researchers claim that scandium provides the highest increment of tensile strength per atomic percent than any other alloying element when added to aluminium.
However, there is no known big commercial use of scandium, and the global yearly demand for the metal is relatively very small, around 20 tonnes. The reason for this is usually found in scandium’s low concentration and its difficulty in separating it from the ore, pushing costs to elevated levels (according to recent figures, around US$7000 /kg of concentrate), thereby hampering its commercial use."
There is a large deposit of Scandium in the US in Elk Creek Nebraska and a US Company is attempting to mine it if they can get the support. They already have the permits needed. They do not really want any $ from the USgovt. (NioCorp / Elk Creek Development)
“Do you get rust on them in WA? “
Not in my part of WA State. In fact, I had to use dilute sulfuric acid to put “fake” rust on a rat rod project.
This is the hard way to learn that we should not be dependent on any one supplier for over 50% of anything. The world is too big not to have multiple suppliers. Hopefully, all the idiot bean counters who always pushed the powers that be to the lowest cost regardless of the ending will now reevaluate what they have forced the country into. It’s time for CEO’s to be CEO’s not last quarters profit idiots.
>>And the hits just keep coming!<<
Right? I wonder how these leftist could engineer such a multi-faceted collapse in just 10 months.
They’re certainly good at what they do.
Think of Obama’s ‘Cash for Clunkers’ program. Where they bought back old cars from the dealers and destroyed them. The thinking was, it would stimulate new car sales by shrinking the used car market. It hurts working people who can’t afford a new car. Now 7 years later, there is a car shortage.
p
Aluminum wheels are over 1.00 a pound. Aluminum cans are 45 cents a pound
Average car wheel weighs 17 pounds.
Smith & Wesson made a number of lightweight revolvers using scandium.
Let's home Biden's commies don't shut down our Magnesium mines...
The Magnesium cell buildings at Dow were torn down a long time ago. I’m doubtful that they still make it anymore.
I worked several summers in Mag III. Hottest place this side of hell.
When you read headlines too fast, it comes out as “The Cat Shortage Is About To Get A Whole Lot Worse”.
Had to slow down and re read it.
https://www.chemicalonline.com/doc/dow-to-exit-magnesium-business-0001
As I thought. Gone, and good riddance
Why in the hell does the song Draggin the Line keep running through my head now? That song had nothing to do with fast cars..and pimple faced chicks.
On reflection. If I had that didge I had again I would get my buddy, take a gallon of gas, go in front of the five and dime in Iron Mountain Michigan, and do a little flame burnout. Just like I did back then.
About 1979, Dow built a semi-plant mag purification plant as the final step before going to full size commercial. The responsible big dog manager decided a pilot plant wasn't needed for whatever reason. So…. It was $10MM capital down the tubes when the process didn't pan out as projected.
I was doing some work adjacent to the huge clarifiers in Plant B that (about 500ft diameter IIRC) used to remove precipitated contaminant inorganics from the seawater. One of the clarifiers had sheared a pin from torque overload on the plow arms and the clarifier was drained to remove packed in solids. They dropped a small bulldozer in the clarifier to push solids to the sidewall and a scoop would reach down to grab a bucket full for loading into dump trucks. IIRC correctly, the raw seawater intake for Plant A and Plant B mag production was something like 200-250K gpm. Lotta water….
That is the Plan. My Man. It was the Plan when they stole the election. The Biden voters thought they were being cute. Those that wanted to get rid of President Trump thought they were being smart. They were digging their own graves. Let them enjoy it. They worked for it. Soon the grocery shelves will be getting bare. As in no goods to buy, use, and eat. Pricewise, food products are going sky high. But the Biden voters are not worried... The Government will just increase their food stamp allotment. They think. The experts predict a 56% increase in heating oil prices. Hopefully it will be a long cold Winter. with a jet stream front from the Artic Circle going down South to the distance from the Artic Circle at least once a month. See if the Man Made Climate Changers can’t laugh themselves to death. It will probably beat freezing to death.
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