The Elements of Innovation Discovered
The Elements of Innovation Discovered
Sorted by date Results 1 - 12 of 12
National urgency and investor backing propel Nebraska mine forward. Following a successful three-month equity raise that secured approximately $60.7 million in institutional funding, NioCorp Developments Ltd. is preparing to launch a series of pre-construction activities at its Elk Creek critical minerals project in Nebraska. Found roughly 80 miles south of Omaha in southeastern Nebraska, Elk Creek is a critical minerals project by every definition of the term – home to one o...
Manganese-based material may rewrite nuclear reactor alloy standards. In a significant step toward reducing America's reliance on foreign-sourced critical minerals, researchers at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) have developed a new manganese-based superalloy that could displace cobalt in high-performance nuclear applications. Long valued for its strength, stability, and resistance to heat and corrosion, cobalt is a silvery-gray metal that plays a critical role...
Pilot Mountain could be a flagship asset in reshoring the supply of a metal critical to industry and defense. Guardian Metal Resources is uncovering fresh evidence that its Pilot Mountain tungsten project in the American Southwest may hold far more value than anyone expected, with implications reaching all the way to the Pentagon. "The company continues to make excellent progress at Pilot Mountain, with drilling operations advancing at pace," said Oliver Friesen, CEO of...
Arizona State University and Army researchers make an out-of-the-box discovery that advances alloy design. In a breakthrough for high-temperature materials, researchers from Arizona State University, the U.S. Army Research Laboratory, Lehigh University, and Louisiana State University have developed a copper alloy that maintains exceptional mechanical strength and thermal stability even after prolonged exposure to extreme heat. Created for use in environments where...
New shape-memory alloy maintains strength and flexibility across an unprecedented temperature range. Scientists at Tohoku University, Japan, have unveiled a revolutionary titanium-aluminum-chromium (superelastic shape-memory alloy that maintains its strength and flexibility across temperatures from the frigid depths of liquid helium (minus 269 degrees Celsius) to heat beyond boiling water (127 degrees Celsius). This material, which combines lightweight durability with extreme...
Hyundai, Kia support nickel-titanium alloy tire that is flexible like rubber, stronger than steel. Reinventing the wheel is the top adage defining something as unnecessary – but not when it comes to tires. The Shape Memory Alloy Radial Technology (SMART) Tire Company, backed by Hyundai Motor and Kia, is applying NASA's space-age technology to create airless, puncture-proof, and sustainable tires for everything from bicycles to electric vehicles here on Earth. In 2023, the c...
New titanium alloys combine strength and ductility, offering potential advancements for aerospace and biomedical industries. In a breakthrough that could transform multiple industries, Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers, in collaboration with ATI Specialty Materials, have developed new titanium alloys that break the conventional tradeoff between strength and ductility, potentially revolutionizing applications from aerospace to biomedical equipment. Titanium...
One way to extend the range of an electric vehicle, or even get better gas mileage out of a conventional internal combustion automobile, is to lighten the load. NioCorp Developments Ltd. is working with automakers to develop strong and lightweight aluminum-scandium auto parts in the United States that will do just that. NioCorp has been advancing a strategy to commercially produce aluminum-scandium master alloy, which only needs a small dose of scandium to bolster the...
In the emerging field of additive manufacturing, researchers from Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, N. M., have developed a material that could significantly reduce carbon emissions from electricity-generating power plants. The Sandia scientists, collaborating with researchers at Ames National Laboratory, Iowa State University, and Bruker Corp., used metal 3D printing, also called additive manufacturing, to create a high-performance metal alloy, or superalloy, with...
Scientists at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, have found a way to simultaneously increase an alloy's strength and ductility, a measure of a material's ability to stretch and be hammered thin without breaking. "A holy grail of structural materials has long been, 'how do you simultaneously enhance strength and ductility?'" said Easo George, principal investigator of the study and Governor's Chair for Advanced...
Rio Tinto's titanium and iron facility in Quebec will soon be producing scandium, a critical metal used by the aerospace, defense, and high-tech sectors. This will make the global mining company the first commercial scale producer of high-quality scandium oxide in North America. A metal that is often associated with rare earths because they tend to be found alongside the 15 lanthanide elements and have similar chemical properties, scandium has traditionally been used in lightw...
Scandium, one of 35 minerals identified as being critical to future production of high-tech and industrial technologies in the West, is seeing a surge in mining and extraction activity in response to increasing demand for the soft, silvery metallic element. Scandium is not particularly rare – its occurrence in crustal rocks is around 22 parts per million. It is generally more plentiful than lead, mercury, and precious metals. Yet scandium rarely concentrates in nature, so t...
