Free Republic

Edging away from the unreliable China supply chain, the Pentagon is going in-house.The Pentagon is making a signal shift in its defense industrial policy. In a recent move, the Department of Defense (DOD) has acquired a significant stake in MP Materials, a US domestic rare earth minerals mining company. Consistent with the Trump administration’s objective to reduce or eliminate America’s dependence on China for supply chains critical to national security, this move is seen as a strategic step. It aims to establish a defense industrial policy that can provide for a surging production capability more rapidly to meet emerging threats....

Perhaps it’s too soon to mark nuclear power’s revival in the U.S. but there is a burst of activity that should ultimately yield a new generation of advanced nuclear plants and small modular reactors.This is especially true for major industrial energy consumers—which now also includes data centers—where there is a strong economic incentive to use more nuclear power instead of natural gas and intermittent renewables.In Illinois, Meta recently signed a long-term agreement to buy nuclear power from Constellation’s Clinton nuclear plant, the latest in a slew of deals between big tech and the nuclear industry. Constellation also said it would...

World Food buys 12 gold mines in Ghana Business World Food has begun to expand their farming operations to Ghana. Through their new funding structure, they have begun purchasing gold mines as part of their funding structure for the Mega Farms they are building in Ghana. World Food has secured the Mineral rights to 300 acres of Alluvial Gold mines. Each mine is 25 acres. The mines are located in the area of Kibi. World Food has begun moving the excavators, bulldozers, gold washers and water pumps into that area for immediate deployment. World Food has purchased fifteen (15) 320...

In a groundbreaking moment for the American mining industry, the Fluor Corporation has confirmed the feasibility of large rare earth element deposits at Ramaco Resources’ Brook Mine in Wyoming. This announcement marks a significant step towards redefining the United States’ position in the critical minerals market. The confirmation by Fluor not only solidifies the economic potential of the Brook Mine but also positions Ramaco Resources as a key player in reducing the country’s dependency on foreign sources of rare earth elements. Ramaco Resources, initially known for its operations as a metallurgical coal miner, was thrust into the spotlight with this...

When President Trump announced tariffs in April, officials in Kazakhstan were surprised to see their country on the list. Kazakhstan, a resource-rich country that borders Russia and China, does a minimal amount of trade with the United States. And based on how Kazakh government officials interpreted Mr. Trump’s new policies, more than 90 percent of its exports to the United States would be exempt from the tariff. American officials have spent much of the last decade promising money and support to prod the country to open up its economy, especially mining. "Many in the region saw the U.S. as a...

Aerial naval mining is a risky operation the U.S. Navy has not performed since Operation Desert Storm in 1991. Unmanned aerial systems could restore this capability to the Navy. But there was no follow-up to Northrop Grumman’s X-47B unmanned combat aerial system demonstrator, even though by 2015, it had successfully completed the first ever autonomous carrier launches, landings, and aerial refuelings. This interrupted progress threatens to delay the incorporation of unmanned combat aerial vehicles (UCAVs), and, specifically, the return of aerial naval mining to carrier air wings. A UCAV of similar size and weight to the X-47B could allow the...

The U.S. Secretary of Energy and other elected officials are preparing to travel to Wyoming for the opening of the first new coal mine in the state in more than five decades. The ribbon cutting for the Brook Mine Carbon Ore Rare Earth project will be on July 11. National and state leaders are expected to speak at the event in Ranchester. "It will be the first new rare earth mine in the United States in more than 70 years and the first new coal mine in Wyoming in over 50 years," Ramaco Resources, Inc. said in a press release....

China controls roughly 90 percent of the rare-earth materials used in high-tech manufacturing, but the United States, Australia and Japan are exploring new sources that could end the Chinese monopoly. The U.S. military is facing a potential crisis at the very bottom of its supply chain. Rare-earth elements have become the new oil, playing a major role in the technological advancements made in the last 50 years. Everything from GPS navigation capability, cell phones, fiber optics, computers, automobiles and missiles relies heavily on rare-earth elements for development and production. For example, according to a 2013 report from the Congressional Research...

The chemical spill released 3,000 gallons of nitric acid from a tank at the Austin Powder Red Diamond Plant in McArthur– which manufactures explosives used for mining and construction – around 8:30 a.m. Wednesday, a Vinton County spokesperson told WLWT. Spillage from the 5,000-gallon tank caused nearby roads to shutter and the Federal Administration Authority to enforce a temporary flight restriction.

Much of a Pre-Columbian population in ancient Chile was poisoned by arsenic, say researchers. According to a recent study conducted by Jaime Swift of the Australian National University and colleagues from several other institutions in Australia and Chile, a significant part of a pre-Columbian population in northern Chile suffered from slow poisoning due to the intake of arsenic from water sources. The researchers performed plasma mass spectrometry trace element analysis of human bone and tooth samples from 21 burials excavated at the site of Caleta Vitor on the Pacific coast of northern Chile, a part of the ultra-dry Atacama Desert...

China produces the entire world’s supply of samarium, a rare earth metal that the United States and its allies need to rebuild inventories of fighter jets, missiles and other hardware.China’s strict controls on the export of heat-resistant magnets made with rare earth minerals have exposed a major vulnerability in the U.S. military supply chain.Without these magnets, the United States and its allies in Europe will struggle to refill recently depleted inventories of military hardware.For more than a decade, the United States has failed to develop an alternative to China’s supply of a specific kind of rare earth crucial for the...

Researchers have found a deposit of rare-earth minerals off the coast of Japan that could supply the world for centuries, according to a new study. The study, published in the journal Nature on Tuesday, says the deposit contains 16 million tons of the valuable metals. Rare-earth minerals are used in everything from smartphone batteries to electric vehicles. By definition, these minerals contain one or more of 17 metallic rare-earth elements (for those familiar with the periodic table, those are on the second row from the bottom).

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%...

Chinese price manipulation has taken its toll on the U.S. economy Rare earth metals are an increasingly integral part of everything from automobiles to television sets.  But the precious metals are tightly controlled by China, with an excess of 95 percent of current suplly coming from Chinese-owned mines and refineries.  The degree of control has allowed China to manipulate prices, cutting back on demand to sell less material for the same amount of profit, any businessperson's dream. I. New Private-Public Partnership Sets Aim on Chinese Mineral Hegemony The problem is that it takes several years or more to bring rare...

A rapid 14-day environmental review has seen a new uranium mine approved in Utah. The endorsement is part of a refreshed Trump administration process to fast-track permissions for energy and mining projects. The Velvet-Wood uranium project received a green light on Friday. It is owned and operated by the Canadian company Anfield Energy. The approval tick comes 11 days after the Interior Department ordered the Bureau of Land Management to review the mine’s environmental impacts within two weeks, as opposed to the prior timeline of months or years.The dynamic new approach has been expected since President Donald Trump declared a...

President Donald Trump signed several executive orders (EOs) on nuclear energy proliferation and an order removing political considerations from public-sector science, as conservatives claimed the latter was scandalized in its response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Trump also signed restoring "gold standard science" as the cornerstone of federal research. A senior White House official said on Friday there has been a decline in "disruptive research" and investments in biomedical research, along with "serious cases" of fraud and misconduct and the inability to reproduce scientific methods for the purpose of restoring public trust. The official also blamed policy responses to the COVID-19...

Six farm murders have taken place in the Two weeks since 90.000 leftist radicals sang “Kill the Boer” in Johannesburg. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa blamed white South Africans for the killing spree. An AfriForum neighborhood watch apprehended four farm attackers outside Pretoria. ... On Tuesday, August 8, the local neighborhood watch of South African civil defense organization AfriForum responded to a farm attack alert in Brits, North West Province, 40 miles west of the capital Pretoria. Local civil defense volunteers were alerted of a vehicle heading east toward Pretoria and established a presence on all roads heading to the...

Donald Trump used videos of a Marxist firebrand politician to highlight the alleged persecution of white farmers in South Africa as the country’s president sat beside him. The US president dimmed the lights at an Oval Office meeting to play clips of Julius Malema, known for his anti-white rhetoric, who was this month blocked from visiting Britain. Mr Malema’s Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) party won just under 10 per cent of the vote at last year’s general election with a platform feeding on the disillusionment of many young black voters who have not seen their lives improve, despite the abolition...

There is a high probability that the small battery in your smartphone contains lithium from Chilean deposits, Indonesian nickel, as well as cobalt mined in Congolese mines controlled by the Chinese and employing local children. Critical minerals and rare earth metals have today become the central point of geopolitical rivalry between powers, because whoever controls critical minerals controls the future. "You can't produce clean energy without dirty extractive industry." These words from the director of advanced magnet lab perfectly capture the paradox of our times. On one hand we talk about decarbonization and green transformation' on the other we need...

A groundbreaking discovery in South America has positioned a major copper project among the world’s top resources. Lundin Mining and BHP’s joint venture uncovers rich deposits of copper, gold, and silver. Bingham copper mine, captured during the day. Credit; Shutterstock ************************************************************************ A major discovery in South America has thrust the Filo del Sol project into the spotlight. The Vicuña joint venture, formed by Lundin Mining and BHP, recently announced what is believed to be the largest greenfield copper find in the past three decades. This new find significantly boosts the project’s position, placing it among the world’s top ten copper...