@Risk

A handful of rare earth minerals and other elements help power our high-tech world and are critical to the development of new technologies to foster US energy independence.

These so-called “Energy-Critical Elements” (ECEs) are chemicals that have the capacity to transform the way we capture, transmit, store or conserve energy.

Unfortunately, though, the US relies on other countries for more than 90 percent of most ECEs. Some ECEs are simply rare in the Earth’s crust or poorly concentrated by geological processes. Many have been produced as by-products of primary metals refining, complicating attempts to produce large quantities. Others occur only in a few mines worldwide, where production is dominated by –and subject to –manipulation by one or more countries.

China, for example, produces 95 percent of all rare earth elements and recently announced plans to cut its exports of the minerals to various nations by 35 percent.

What can the US do to secure future supplies of ECEs?
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The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 includes new regulations targeting so-called “conflict minerals” – minerals that are sourced from unstable regions of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and surrounding countries.

The legislation requires publicly-traded and electronic companies to submit an annual report outlining what they are doing to ensure that the minerals they’re using –tin, tantalum, tungsten and gold, in particular –are “conflict-free.”

That’s not an easy task. Manufacturers typically use huge volumes of raw materials sourced from various different suppliers. Today’s supplier networks are global, interconnected and enormously complex, and it’s clear that compliance with the Dodd-Frank Act is going to be a daunting challenge for most companies. (more…)

Rare earth elements are essential for the manufacture of a variety of today’s new technologies, ranging from computer hard drives and precision-guided munitions to critical components of the clean energy economy.

These days, clean energy technologies –such as hybrid-electric batteries, wind turbines, solar cells and energy-efficient lighting –constitute about 20 percent of global consumption of rare earths. However, as these technologies become increasingly popular, their share of global consumption will continue to grow.  As a result, it’s no surprise that the US Department of Energy is keeping a careful eye on the global supply of rare earths.

Last week, the DOE released its Critical Materials Strategy, a report that analyzes fourteen elements and identifies five rare earth metals (dysprosium, neodymium, terbium, europium and yttrium), as well as indium, as the most critical based on importance to clean energy technologies and supply risk.

The report also explores eight policy and program areas that could help reduce vulnerabilities and address critical material needs. According to DOE, these areas include: (more…)

In April, the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) published a report on rare earth materials in the supply chain of the Department of Defense. The report, commissioned by Congress, documented that China now dominates the supply of rare earth materials crucial to the nation’s defense, computer and renewable energy sectors.

In fact, the GAO estimates that China now supplies virtually all –or more precisely, a whopping 97 percent –of the world’s rare earth supply, and in the report the agency clearly voices its concerns that China could someday reduce the supply.

“The GAO report is a timely warning that the US needs to ramp up its domestic production of both light and heavy rare earths immediately,” US Rare Earths, Inc. Chief Executive Officer Edward Cowle said at the time.

But, perhaps even “immediately” isn’t soon enough? (more…)

The financial reform bill that President Obama signed into law last month also included new regulations targeting “conflict minerals” sourced from unstable regions of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and surrounding countries.

The new provisions, tucked inside more than 2,000 pages of legislation, require publicly-traded and electronic companies to submit an annual report outlining what they are doing to ensure the minerals they’re using –tin, tantalum, tungsten and gold, in particular –are “conflict-free.”

Recently, human rights advocates and various NGOs have put the spotlight on the sourcing of these minerals, claiming that militias in the DRC use the income generated by some mines to fund the country’s brutal and long-running civil war. In a statement last week, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton described the devastating effects of trade in conflict minerals: (more…)