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Jan 3 (Reuters) - The Biden administration on Friday issued the final mining permit for Perpetua Resources' (PPTA.O), opens new tab Idaho antimony and gold project, a move aimed at spurring U.S. production of a critical mineral at the center of a widening trade war between Washington and Beijing. Permitting for the mine, backed by billionaire investor John Paulson, comes after Beijing last month blocked exports to the U.S. of antimony,... Perpetua's mine will supply more than 35% of America's annual antimony needs once it opens by 2028 and produce 450,000 ounces of gold each year,...The project has not won...

China is planning to restrict exports of a key mineral needed to make weapons while a U.S. company that could be reducing America’s reliance on foreign suppliers is languishing in red tape, energy experts told the Daily Caller News Foundation. The Chinese government announced on August 15 that it will restrict exports of antimony, a critical mineral that dominates the production of weapons globally and is essential for producing equipment like munitions, night vision goggles and bullets that are essential to national security, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). Perpetua Resources, an American mining company, has...

China announced Tuesday it is banning exports to the United States of gallium, germanium, antimony and other key high-tech materials with potential military applications, as a general principle, lashing back at U.S. limits on semiconductor-related exports. The Chinese Commerce Ministry announced the move after the Washington expanded its list of Chinese companies subject to export controls on computer chip-making equipment, software and high-bandwidth memory chips. Such chips are needed for advanced applications. The ratcheting up of trade restrictions comes as President-elect Donald Trump has been threatening to sharply raise tariffs on imports from China and other countries, potentially intensifying simmering...

China has banned exports to the United States of items related to the minerals gallium, germanium and antimony that have potential military applications, it said on Tuesday, a day after Washington’s latest crackdown on China’s chip sector.. A commerce ministry directive on dual-use items with both military and civilian applications cited national security concerns. The order, which takes immediate effect, also requires stricter review of end-usage for graphite items shipped to the U.S.. “In principle, the export of gallium, germanium, antimony, and superhard materials to the United States shall not be permitted,” the commerce ministry said. The curbs strengthen enforcement...

Theory has become practice as new work from the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering taps diamond defects’ remarkable ability to concentrate optical energy. Researchers have developed atomic antennas using germanium vacancy centers in diamonds, achieving a million-fold optical energy enhancement. This advancement allows the study of fundamental physics and opens new research avenues. The collaboration between theoretical and experimental teams was essential to this breakthrough. Atomic Antennas: Harnessing Light for Powerful Signals Similar to how a radio antenna captures a broadcast from the air and concentrates the energy into music, individual atoms can collect and concentrate the...

China’s exports of two rare minerals essential for manufacturing semiconductors fell to zero in August, a month after Beijing imposed curbs on sales overseas, citing national security. China produces about 80% of the world’s gallium and about 60% of germanium, according to the Critical Raw Materials Alliance, but it didn’t sell any of the elements on international markets last month, Chinese customs data released on Wednesday showed. In July, the country exported 5.15 metric tons of forged gallium products and 8.1 metric tons of forged germanium products. When asked about the lack of exports last month, He Yadong, a spokesperson...

Beijing’s “chokepoint strategy” for rare metals could very well dictate the future balance of technological power.Two metallic elements, tucked deep within the periodic table, have emerged as key drivers of world politics. On July 3, China’s Ministry of Commerce and China Customs announced export controls on gallium and germanium products (including compounds), effective August 1. This action, aimed at “safeguarding national security and interests,” according to Chinese officials, has stirred global panic within various industries, governments, and media outlets. Although these two rare metals only account for several hundred million dollars in global trade—a figure that pales in comparison with...

From August, China is to restrict exports of gallium and germanium, two critical elements for making semiconductor chips. With China dominating the supply of both elements, exporters will now need special licenses to get them out of the country. The move has the potential to harm a range of Western tech manufacturers that use these elements to make their products. The move is reportedly in response to Western restrictions on equipment vital for making semiconductor devices. Above all, the US CHIPS and Science Act of 2022 curtailed exports of high-end microchips and technology to China, potentially affecting Beijing’s capacity for...

Gallium and germanium are silvery-white metals that can be found in a wide variety of electronics, such as semiconductors, smartphones, pressure sensors, transistors and fibre optics, as well as solar panels, camera lenses and space systems. Invoking "national security interests," the Chinese Ministry of Commerce said on Monday that companies that intend to sell products containing the two targeted materials would need to first obtain an export licence. In practice, this means that if the central government refuses to issue the licence, the company will be outright banned from exporting. The government will treat the merchandise as a "dual-use" item,...

China is imposing export restrictions on two metals used in the manufacturing of semiconductors, deepening a trade conflict between Beijing and democratic nations over the all-important chips. China's commerce ministry announced the implementation of export controls on gallium and germanium Monday, stating it was done "in order to safeguard national security and interests." The regulations require exporters to secure a license to ship the two metals and related products starting Aug. 1, the ministry said, adding that the end use and end user must be identified in the application. ... The announcement also comes days before U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet...

In metals, electrons are normally expected to be diffusive in their movement, operating as individual particles – in other words, they don't gain momentum as a group. In a new study, scientists have now discovered a type of metal where electrons actually do flow in a fluid-like way – like water in a pipe – by interacting with quasiparticles called phonons, which emerge from vibrations in a crystal structure. This causes the electrons to shift from diffusive (particle-like) to hydrodynamic (fluid-like) behavior in their movement. The metal superconductor that causes this behavior is a synthesis of niobium and germanium called...

FTC WARNED INVESTORS OFF HUGE DOLLAR GAINS/TAKE 3Jan 27, 2005 - FreeMarketNews.comby Chris MackWashington’s regulators are supposed to stand up for the little guy. Maybe they also help the little guy stay that way. In the last decade, under the pretense of protecting people from losing their shirts, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) released warnings about indium and other strategic metal investing “scams.” Some of these warnings haven’t been updated since - and in any event they are all over the ‘Net. Anyone with a computer and Google can type in “fraud” and “indium” and come up with the following:...

COVID-19: It’s all we talk about, on the cable news, and in our 6-foot socially-distanced prison walks around our silent neighborhoods. And in nearly every conversation comes the intellectual shrug, “who could have seen this coming?” A single phrase that neatly absolves governments and experts alike of any responsibility of predicting the pandemic and, if not being able to stop it, at least cushioning its blow........ But is it unfair to engage in so much 20-20 hindsight? After all, who could see COVID coming? Well, we did. We — as in nodes within the U.S. Government tasked with tracking critical...

HIRSCHFELD, GERMANY - Scientists in Germany have come up with a method for extracting the precious element germanium from plants. The element is a semi-conductor and was used to develop the first transistor because it is able to transport electrical charges extremely quickly. Nowadays, silicon-germanium alloy is indispensable to modern life, crucial in making computers, smartphones and fiber-optic cables. Transparent in infra-red light, germanium is also used in intelligent steering systems and parking sensors for vehicles. Yet although germanium is present in soil all over the world, it is difficult to extract, and most supplies currently come from China. Now...

Engineers at the University of Maryland have created a battery that is made entirely out of one material, which can both move electricity and store it. "To my knowledge, there has never been any similar work reported," said Dr. Kang Xu of the Army Research Laboratory, a researcher only peripherally related to the study. "It could lead to revolutionary progress in area of solid state batteries." Envision an Oreo cookie. Most batteries have at either end a layer of material for the electrodes like the chocolate cookies to help move ions though the creamy frosting – the electrolyte. Chunsheng Wang,...

Graphene is slated as the major breakthrough of this century. Infact it could very well propel the semiconductor a couple of decades easily (compared to the performance trend via Moore’s law ). Graphene transistors are more than capable of being clocked at 500Ghz so you get the idea of what Samsung is claiming to have achieved: a replicateable production process of Graphene nodes.Graphene.Experimental gFET Graphene Production – Scientific breakthrough of this century to be used in CPUs* of wearable devicesOK, I admit, I was being slightly sarcastic when I wrote the headline. It seems sort of ironic that if Samsung’s...