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· China Beats Competition to Secure Zimbabwe Lithium Source
· Turkey Announced the Discovery of Rare Earth Mines That Could Meet 1,000 Years of Global Demand, and the Result Was a Big Joke
· Study: Nature Used 57 Ways to Make Over 5,600 Minerals on Earth
· Could Wyoming Supply the U.S. with Rare Earth Elements?
· Why Electric Vehicle Manufacturing Is a National Security Imperative
· Britain’s Electric Dreams Will Never Come True While China Has a Materials Advantage
· Exploring The Deep Sea as a New Source of Rare Earth Elements
· Pro-China Agents Posed as Activists to Protest US, Canada Mines
China Beats Competition to Secure Zimbabwe Lithium Source (Alexandria Williams, DW)
Chinese electric vehicle battery giants are rushing to invest in Zimbabwe’s lithium mines. Lithium is key component in the race to control the EV battery market.
Turkey Announced the Discovery of Rare Earth Mines That Could Meet 1,000 Years of Global Demand, and the Result Was a Big Joke (iMedia)
Rare earth is not soil, but a general term for lanthanide elements, scandium and yttrium in the chemical periodic table, a total of seventeen metal elements. Rare earths are very precious due to their scarcity, non-renewable reserves, and difficult separation, purification and processing. According to 2015 data from the US Geological Survey, the world’s rare earth reserves are about 130 million tons, of which China is 55 million tons and Brazil is 22 million tons. The United States is 13 million tons, Australia is 2.1 million tons, India is 3.1 million tons, Malaysia is 30,000 tons, and other countries combined have 41 million tons.
Not long ago, Turkey announced the discovery of a large rare earth mine with reserves of up to 694 million tons in its northwestern Eskisehir province. In the words of Turkish officials, such huge reserves may be able to meet the world’s consumption for 1,000 years, generate at least billions of dollars in revenue, create a large number of jobs and relieve employment pressure.
What is the concept of 700 million tons of rare earth? It is 5 times the current total global rare earth reserves and nearly 16 times that of China’s rare earth reserves. Has Turkey really made a fortune on its own soil?
Study: Nature Used 57 Ways to Make Over 5,600 Minerals on Earth (Alison Snyder, Axios)
Nature uses 57 ways to make the more than 5,600 minerals on Earth, scientists reported earlier this month.
Minerals are currently classified by their structure and composition — what they are. Adding information about how and when a mineral formed could help scientists spot signs of life on other planets and understand the origins of it here on Earth.
