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Around 12,000 years ago, something scorched a vast swath of the Atacama Desert in Chile with heat so intense that it turned the sandy soil into widespread slabs of silicate glass. Now, a research team studying the distribution and composition of those glasses has come to a conclusion about what caused the inferno. In a study published in the journal Geology, researchers show that samples of the desert glass contain tiny fragments with minerals often found in rocks of extraterrestrial origin. Those minerals closely match the composition of material returned to Earth by NASA's Stardust mission, which sampled the particles...

USA Rare Earth, the funding and development partner of the Round Top heavy rare earth project and Texas Mineral Resources announced Thursday that its rare earths pilot plant processing facility in Wheat Ridge, Colorado has received the required permits and officially opened. Once fully commissioned, the plant will be focused on group separation of rare earths into heavy (dysprosium, terbium), middle, and light (neodymium, praseodymium) rare earths (REE’s) and will be the first facility to separate the full range of rare earth elements in the US since 1999. USA Rare Earth’s pilot plant is the second link in a 100%...

The United States and Ukraine have signed an agreement over access to Ukraine’s natural resources, Bloomberg News reported on Wednesday. The deal will provide the US privileged access to new investment projects to develop Ukraine’s natural resources, including aluminum, graphite, oil and natural gas, Bloomberg reported.

Washington -- America’s craft brewers already have enough problems. Hard seltzers and cocktails are muscling into beer sales. Millennials and Gen Z don’t drink as much as their elders. Brewpubs still haven’t fully recovered from the shock of COVID-19 five years ago. Now there’s a new threat: President Donald Trump’s tariffs, including levies of 25 per cent on imported steel and aluminum and on goods from Canada and Mexico. “It’s going to cost the industry a substantial amount of money,” said Matt Cole, brewmaster at Ohio-based Fat Head’s Brewery. Trump’ trade war “will be crippling for our industry if this...

Nvidia, the world’s undisputed leader in chipmaking, says it will invest hundreds of billions of dollars over the next four years on its U.S.-based manufacturing operations — part of the manufacturing renaissance under President Donald J. Trump as he solidifies the U.S. as the global leader in artificial intelligence.“Having the support of an administration who cares about the success of this industry and not allowing energy to be an obstacle is a phenomenal result for AI in the U.S.,” said Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang.Here’s what they’re saying:Axios: “It’s another win for President Trump’s push to increase U.S. manufacturing, with a...

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has committed to a 10-year, $1.4 trillion “investment framework” in the U.S., the White House announced Friday. The new framework “will substantially increase the UAE’s existing investments in the U.S. economy in AI infrastructure, semiconductors, energy, and American manufacturing,” according to the administration. The UAE committed to the investments after President Trump hosted the UAE’s national security adviser, Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed, and the heads of major UAE sovereign wealth funds and corporations for a meeting in the Oval Office earlier this week. Among the investments under the framework, the UAE investment fund ADQ and...

The European Union (EU) retaliated swiftly with a two-step approach in response to President Trump’s fresh 25 percent tariffs on steel and aluminum that took effect Wednesday. First, the European trading bloc — made up of 27 nations — will allow the suspension of the existing 2018 and 2020 countermeasures against the U.S. to expire on April 1. Second, the commission is proposing a new package of countermeasures on goods coming from the U.S. that will go into effect in mid-April, covering some $28 billion in imports in total. President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen said Europe...

Researchers discovered a tiny droplet of acid could do the job of large amounts of harmful chemicals usually used for turning aluminum transparent. (fotaro100/Shutterstock) =================================================================== In a nutshell * Scientists have developed a technique to transform aluminum into transparent aluminum oxide using just a droplet of acid and low voltage (2V), dramatically reducing chemical waste compared to traditional methods that require full immersion in acid baths. * The transparent material allows more than 70% of visible light to pass through while blocking some near-infrared light, making it potentially valuable for applications in electronics, solar panels, optical sensors, and energy-efficient windows....

Russia is open to working with US on rare earth production 🔻 Russia holds FAR MORE rare earth reserves than Ukraine 🔻 Foreign partners welcome—including in new regions

President Trump said Sunday that he will announce 25% tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports into the United States on Monday. Mr. Trump, speaking on Air Force One on the way to New Orleans to attend the 2025 Super Bowl, said he would also announce "reciprocal tariffs" on Tuesday or Wednesday, which he said will go into effect immediately. This means that the U.S. would impose import duties on products in cases where another country has levied duties on U.S. goods. "If they charge us, we charge them … every country," he said, adding, "If they are charging us...

Sometimes it is the quiet, elusive ones who come back to haunt you. And for ex-special prosecutor Robert Mueller, one of those might be a Russian billionaire named Oleg Deripaska. The oligarch who once controlled Russia’s largest aluminum empire has been an international man of intrigue in the now-completed and disproven Trump collusion investigation. Deripaska was a disaffected former business client of Donald Trump’s fallen campaign chairman Paul Manafort. He also was a legal research client of Trump-hating, Clinton-aiding British spy Christopher Steele. In his spare time, he was an occasional friendly cooperator with the FBI and its fired deputy...

A group of Republican and Democrat senators, along with the United Steelworkers (USW), are calling on President Joe Biden to hike United States tariffs on imported aluminum to save American jobs. In a letter to Biden’s Commerce Department Secretary Gina Raimondo, the senators warn that aluminum extrusion plants in the U.S. are at risk of being eliminated as a result of imported aluminum extrusions.

en. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) called on President Biden to keep a Missouri aluminum plant open, after it was reported that its operation would be curtailed by Jan. 28. Hawley issued a statement on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, on Thursday after reports that Magnitude 7 Metals, the second-largest U.S. aluminum smelter, is going to lay off most of its staff. “This cannot be allowed to happen,” Hawley wrote Thursday. “The plant accounts for nearly 30% of the nation’s aluminum. It’s vital to national security. President Biden must invoke the Defense Production Act and keep it open.” Hawley referenced...

A Taco Bell employee was slapped by a customer who blamed the fast-food chain for breaking his microwave after it blew up when he tried to reheat his meal at home. Footage of the swear-ridden clip was shared widely across social media over the weekend, with viewers saying that the consumer had tried to heat food still wrapped in foil. This is a catastrophic mistake as metal must never be cooked in a microwave. It remains unclear whether that was why the man's microwave exploded, but footage of his encounter back at the restaurant shows him complaining about the...

Welcome to The Bicycle Thread. A monthly PING List for bicycle enthusiasts to share experiences, information and ideas. 🚴‍♂️👍

Video of history of aluminum in our environment link to video

Now a federally-funded study has found a possible link between vaccines containing aluminum and a higher risk of asthma in children. Results showed children who received all or most of their routine childhood shots had a 36 per cent higher risk of being diagnosed with persistent asthma by age five than kids who got fewer vaccines. Experts and health officials say the research has important shortcomings and is not a reason to change current vaccine programs that are proven to save lives. The study doesn't claim aluminum causes the breathing condition and instead suggests a casual association. More work is...

EU and U.S. imports of Russia's main base metal products aluminium and nickel during March-June increased by as much as 70%, official trade data compiled by Reuters from the United Nations Comtrade database show. The total value of EU and U.S. imports of the two metals from March to June were $1.98 billion... Analysts said the United States and Europe have learned lessons after huge disruption on construction, auto and power sectors caused by sanctions imposed by former U.S. President Donald Trump on Russian aluminium 2018. Russia's Rusal is the world's largest aluminium producer outside China and accounts for about...

The second largest aluminum mill in the United States has idled operations, laying off about 600 American workers, due to “untenable” electricity and energy prices. In June, Century Aluminum Co. executives announced that they would idle the Hawesville, Kentucky aluminum mill for about 9 to 12 months as a result of skyrocketing prices to merely keep the plant’s lights on. Similarly, executives with two steel mills are suspending operations because they cannot afford the costs of energy to keep the plants open. This comes after executives warned federal regulators about debilitating energy prices months ago.

A large aluminum plant in Kentucky is temporarily halting production and laying off more than 600 workers due to rising energy costs. Century Aluminum has announced plans to shut down its Hawesville smelter for nine to 12 months starting in August. The plant, with about 628 workers, is the second-largest employer in Hancock County, the Owensboro Messenger-Inquirer reported. The county's judge-executive, Johnny Roberts, told the newspaper the company gave him no assurances the plant would reopen after that. Roberts said the company told him that its power costs have risen dramatically this year. Century Aluminum said the Hawesville plant is...