Chatgpt generated image of Europe navigating between China’s processing choke point and America’s federal volatility toward a more resilient battery minerals future.
The energy transition will not fail because the world runs out of useful minerals. It can be slowed, made more expensive, and made more fragile because the industrial systems that turn minerals into batteries, motors, power electronics, grid equipment, and vehicles are concentrated, politically exposed, and hard to rebuild. That … [continued]
New IEA report highlights growing mismatch between accelerating use of rare earths across a wide range of technologies and slow pace of supply diversification globally. Rare earth elements are moving rapidly to the forefront of global policy making for energy, transport, advanced manufacturing and digital technologies as demand continues to … [continued]
A new, 3-D printed, reusable sponge-like cartridge can soak up critical minerals from domestic mining, industrial, and electronic waste.
Whether electric vehicles or gas-powered cars, production could come to a grinding halt in the US and Europe soon. Word on the street is that the escalating trade combativeness between the West and China has led to China putting restrictions on rare earth minerals and magnets. China controls more than … [continued]
ChatGPT generated panoramic image of a cracked American flag made of silicon wafers, fiber optic cables, and EV batteries—all splintering at the rare earth seams
In April 2025, while most of the world was clutching pearls over trade war tit-for-tat tariffs, China calmly walked over to the supply chain and yanked out a handful of critical bolts. The bolts are made of dysprosium, terbium, tungsten, indium and yttrium—the elements that don’t make headlines but without … [continued]
Manganese nodules from the ocean floor could help feed the supply chain for EV batteries, but does the world need deep-sea mining?
Manganese nodules from the ocean floor could help feed the supply chain for EV batteries, but does the world need deep-sea mining?
There are somewhat mixed views on the newsworthiness of the Tesla Investor Day on March 1st, 2023. I sat through the whole event live and took notes of what I thought was news. Maybe you did too? Maybe you didn’t? Maybe you have already read and viewed a myriad of … [continued]
Concentrating solar power could unlock America’s clean energy future and boost solar from intermittent contributor to baseload generator – if we clear the regulatory, technological, and financial hurdles standing in the way, says a new white paper.
Dysprosium, terbium, europium, neodymium and yttrium: if you can’t pronounce them that’s okay, all you need to know is that the near-term supply of these five rare earth metals is on shaky ground, just when they have been emerging as critical materials that the U.S. depends on to develop … [continued]
Rare earth metals and other raw materials are critical to continuing the transition to a clean energy economy. In its “2011 Critical Materials” report, the DOE identifies and assesses the importance of 16 key clean energy raw materials and plots them against supply risk over short and medium-term scenarios.
