The Elements of Innovation Discovered
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In addition to dealing a major blow to the economy, the COVID-19 pandemic has shined a spotlight on a chink in the United States' economic and security armor – an overreliance on foreign countries for the minerals and metals that lie at the frontend of American supply chains. "The COVID-19 pandemic has shown how delicate our supply chains are and that should be a wakeup call for all of us," Senate Committee on Energy & Natural Resources Chair Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, said d...
With the recent completion of a $50 million financing, USA Rare Earth LLC has the funds to take major strides toward executing its rare earths mine-to-magnet strategy in the United States. At the front end of this strategy lies the Round Top heavy rare earths and critical minerals project in Texas, which USA Rare Earth recently exercised its option to acquire an 80% joint venture interest in from Texas Mineral Resources Corp. Situated in the Texas desert about 85 miles...
Looking to transform old coal mining regions into new domestic sources for rare earths and critical minerals vital to electric vehicles, renewable energy, and other technologies, the U.S. Department of Energy has awarded $19 million for 13 projects in traditionally fossil fuel-producing communities from Appalachia to Alaska. "The very same fossil fuel communities that have powered our nation for decades can be at the forefront of the clean energy economy by producing the...
Seeking to bolster America's critical mineral supply chain, Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, has introduced legislation that tackles the notoriously long permitting process in the United States. "America's reliance on foreign countries for the production and recycling of our critical minerals is a vulnerability to our national security, a disadvantage to our economy, and a hindrance to our global competitiveness. Unfortunately, the current federal permitting and review process...
The American clean energy revolution envisioned by the Biden administration is going to require a massive supply chain upgrade – from the mines feeding rare earths, battery metals and other materials into the front end, to the manufacturers that will utilize these mined materials to build the electric vehicles and renewable energy infrastructure needed for a low-carbon future. In a move that demonstrates the newly elected administration's hopes that a transition to l...
Syrah Resources Ltd. has taken another major step toward scaling up production of natural graphite anode material at its facility in Vidalia, Louisiana to help meet the demands of rapidly expanding lithium-ion battery production in the United States. In order to power electric vehicles and store renewable energy, annual lithium-ion battery production capacity in the U.S. is expected to climb to at least 226 gigawatt-hours by 2030. This production output, however, could top...
Just a week after Tesla Battery Day 2020, where CEO Elon Musk unveiled the electric automaker's massive lithium-ion battery ambitions, the iconic electric automaker has cut a deal to buy some of the lithium it will require for this plan from a mine in North Carolina and has begun moving ahead with a Texas refinery to transform the raw lithium concentrates into the form needed for its batteries. These two moves will shorten Tesla's North American mines-to-electric vehicle...
Best known for its contribution to advancing the Round Top rare earths and critical minerals mine project, Texas Mineral Resources Corp. is now leading a group targeting the development of a plant capable of recovering rare earths from Pennsylvania coal byproducts. The Texas-based mineral explorer is teaming up with Penn State University; Jeddo Coal Company, a family-run mining company with a Pennsylvania operation; and H22OS Consulting, an engineering and construction firm...
A pair of Texas congressmen, Republican Lance Gooden and Democrat Vicente Gonzalez, have introduced the Reclaiming American Rare Earths Act, bipartisan legislation aimed at reducing America's dependence on China for rare earth elements and other critical minerals. The United States depends on foreign countries for more than 50% of its supply of 31 of the 35 minerals considered critical to the nation's economic wellbeing and national security, including 100% import-reliant for...
Already involved in nearly every facet of the rare earth supply chain, from mining these technology elements to manufacturing powerful REE magnets, USA Rare Earth LLC has cut a deal with Geomega Resources Inc. to recycle these metals. Under a letter of intent signed by the companies on July 15, Quebec-based Geomega would recycle rare earth-containing waste from producing neodymium-iron-boron permanent magnets at a facility New York-based USA Rare Earth is planning to build in...
Geology dictates where mineable concentrations of the metals we need for our everyday modern lives are located. It so happens that USA Rare Earth LLC and Texas Mineral Resources Corp.'s Round Top rare earths and critical minerals project is in the sunny West Texas high desert. This puts one of America's richest deposits of the rare earths that go into the powerful magnets used in wind turbines and electric vehicles smack in the middle of one of the best places in the world...
Texas Mineral Resources Corp. has added fuel to USA Rare Earth LLC's strategy to establish a complete rare earth mines-to-magnets supply chain in the United States, which is already advancing much more rapidly than either company envisioned when they formed a partnership less than two years ago. Texas Mineral Resources is an exploration company that has outlined an enormous deposit of rare earth elements, lithium and 10 other critical minerals at its Round Top project about...
With the commissioning of a pilot plant in Colorado now underway, USA Rare Earth LLC is one step closer to producing rare earth elements on American soil. Based in New York City, USA Rare Earth has set in motion a strategy to establish a completely domestic supply chain for rare earth magnets, which are essential for wind turbines, electric vehicles, smartphones, military hardware, advanced medical devices, and the physical backbone of emerging 5G networks. A key facet of...
USA Rare Earth LLC and Texas Mineral Resources Corp. May 26 reported another milestone along the path to developing a rare earths and critical minerals mine and processing facility in the United States. Texas Mineral Resources is an El Paso, Texas-based mineral exploration company targeting the heavy rare earths and other technology and industrial minerals found at Round Top, and USA Rare Earth is a New York City based company that is funding the project's development. The...
Texas Mineral Resources Corp. and USA Rare Earth LLC April 2 said the COVID-19 outbreak thus far has not held up progress on their Round Top critical minerals project in Texas and pilot heavy rare earths separation plant in Colorado. "Our first priority is to safeguard the health and well-being of our employees, partners and contractors," said Texas Mineral Resources Chairman Anthony Marchese. "Fortunately to date, the COVID-19 outbreak has had a minimal effect on our...
USA Rare Earth LLC has acquired state-of-the-art neodymium-iron-boron permanent magnet manufacturing equipment, another key piece to the company's strategy to establish a complete rare earths mines-to-magnets supply chain in the United States. New York-based USA Rare Earth has already made major headway toward this objective as the funding and development partner at Round Top, a rare earth and critical minerals project about 85 miles southeast of El Paso. According to a prelim...
Ucore Rare Metals Inc. wants to provide the Pentagon with an American source of rare earth elements, vital ingredients to a wide array of U.S. military hardware, from helmet mounted radios to laser guided missiles. While essential to national defense, the U.S. currently depends on foreign countries for 100 percent of its supply of rare earths. And more than 80 percent of these critical metals are imported from China, either directly or via secondary countries. As part of a...
American mines produced roughly 26,000 tons of rare earth during 2019, a 44 percent increase over 2018, yet the United States is 100 percent reliant on foreign countries for its supply of these 17 elements vital to our modern high-tech society. This apparent paradox speaks to the complexities of these enigmatic metals. The irony of rare earth elements (REEs) begins with their name, which is at the same time a misnomer and accurate descriptor. "All the REEs except promethium...
Texas Mineral Resources Corp. and USA Rare Earth LLC Jan. 21 announced the Federal Permitting Improvement Steering Council's (FPISC) decision to add mining as a sector covered under Fast-41. Short for Title 41 of the Fixing America's Surface Transportation Act, Fast-41 is a 2015 initiative to improve the timeliness, predictability, and transparency of federal environmental review and authorization process for infrastructure projects in the United States. More information on...
Amongst the rarest of the stable elements on the periodic table and an important ingredient in the emerging thin-film solar panel sector, tellurium embodies what it means to be a critical metalloid – an element that possesses the properties of both a metal and non-metal. "Most rocks contain an average of about 3 parts per billion tellurium, making it rarer than the rare earth elements and eight times less abundant than gold," the United States Geological Survey wrote in a 2...
The National Mining Association and a group of 16 companies working to establish a complete rare earths mines-to-magnets supply chain in the United States are urging Congress to approve legislation that would provide tax incentives for the domestic manufacturing of REE magnets. Earlier this month, Reps. Eric Swalwell (D-California) and Guy Reschenthaler (R-Pennsylvania) introduced HR 5033, a bipartisan bill to help stimulate domestic production of rare earth magnets as part...
From mines to gigafactories, it is going to take a massive and coordinated effort to scale up the entire North American lithium-ion battery supply chain at a pace that meets the growing demands of the accelerating electric vehicle revolution. "To replace more of the gasoline cars that are on the road, to benefit from the promise of electrification across all vehicle types and all consumer classes, requires the supply chain to be built out in a bigger way and faster way than...