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  • A red Jeep Wrangler EV plugged into a “powered by sunshine” charger.

    NioCorp works on Al-Sc alloy car parts

    Shane Lasley, Metal Tech News|Updated Dec 2, 2023

    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...

  • Sandia lab technician shines light on 3D printer during superalloy printing.

    Sandia scientists 3D print new superalloy

    Rose Ragsdale, For Metal Tech News|Updated Feb 28, 2023

    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...

  • Department of Energy ORNL research ductile alloy nanoprecipitates Ying Yang

    DOE researchers develop new super-alloy

    A.J. Roan, Metal Tech News|Updated Jul 12, 2022

    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 titanium iron scandium aluminum mine Quebec

    Rio Tinto moves into scandium market

    Shane Lasley, Metal Tech News|Updated Jul 10, 2022

    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...

  • Airbus APworks scandium Rio Tinto rare earth critical metal Scandium

    Westerners chase scandium production

    Rose Ragsdale, For Metal Tech News|Updated Jul 27, 2021

    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...