Massive Rare Earth Deposit Found In Australia 149
An anonymous reader writes "A north Queensland mining company has discovered one of the world's largest deposits of the rare earth, scandium, used in fuel cells."
Force needed to accelerate 2.2lbs of cookies = 1 Fig-newton to 1 meter per second
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The amount of information in the summary and TFA could have fit in a tweet.
They probably tweeted it also (perhaps more than once). And likely started Facebook and MySpace pages for the deposit.
Gotta raise that hype every way you can. There's no material product, but the investors want to dump shares^W^W advertise this amazing economic opportunity to others...
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A good summary would have told us *how* massive it was.
Yeah, and linking to an article which is worth a shit would help as well.
Here's a link to a much more informative article. [brisbanetimes.com.au]
Excerpts:
Currently, the world market for scandium is small - around two to five tonnes a year
then we'll produce - let's say - 40 tonnes of scandium.
But most relevant to your specific question is the last line: "A resource estimate is expected to be released mid-year.
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It was fucking massive. Is that better?
Metallica Metals... (Score:2)
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Woosh!
Lars is American. Metallica Minerals is from Austria!
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I'm still wondering how much more whoosh you were presenting in your reply. (Lars Ulrich is from Danemark, not the U.S., and Metallica Minerals is from Australia, not Austria.)
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Nice, but one of the less useful rare earths (Score:5, Informative)
That's nice, but scandium has only a few minor uses. A find of high-quality neodymium or europium ore would be much more interesting.
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Of course they didn't find europium, it was in Australia!
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If media/gaming companies can consider Australia a part of Europe, then dammit, so can some dumb element!
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Of course they didn't find europium, it was in Australia!
In honor of Columbus Day: "Australians set off to the North East in ships looking for a new route to Europe. Upon encountering a different continent on the way, they name its inhabitants Europeans.
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Australium! Shines like gold, crafts nice weapons!
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Re:Nice, but one of the less useful rare earths (Score:4, Informative)
And Scandium is not really a rare earth. It's the first transition metal (3d valence orbitals) with atomic number 21. Rare earths don't begin until Lanthanum (4f valence orbitals) with atomic number 57.
Scandium does have uses, but these have been small in part due to the limited availability of the metal. Is is questionable whether those uses will increase markedly in the near future, just because the supply of Scandium has increased.
Re:Nice, but one of the less useful rare earths (Score:5, Informative)
And Scandium is not really a rare earth. It's the first transition metal (3d valence orbitals) with atomic number 21. Rare earths don't begin until Lanthanum (4f valence orbitals) with atomic number 57.
Geology and mining does things a little differently from chemistry. Apparently, Scandium is classified as a "rare earth" because it occurs in deposits with proper rare earths. Similarly, gold is often classified as a "platinum group metal" because it's a common associate of proper platinum group metals.
Is is questionable whether those uses will increase markedly in the near future, just because the supply of Scandium has increased.
Why? There are apparently a number of viable aluminum alloys that use scandium. Cheaper scandium makes these more competitive with similar alloys (apparently, titanium containing aluminum alloys).
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A find of high-quality neodymium or europium ore would be much more interesting.
We'd love to get hold of more Europium, but:
[ ] Afghanistan cornered the market
[ ] They can only get Oceanium down under.
[ ] All of Jupiter's moons are ours, except the one with the rare earth element. Figures.
Please delete as appropriate.
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A find of high-quality neodymium or europium ore would be much more interesting.
You mean like Lynas mining's Mt Weld in Australia?
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You mean like Lynas mining's Mt Weld in Australia?
Right. And Mountain Pass, California.
The big problem with rare earth mining (and gold mining) is finding a place to dump the wastes. Some rare earth mines are environmental disaster areas. Most are in the middle of nowhere. Mountain Pass CA is adjacent to I-15, east of Barstow. They have a unique solution - they're building a pipeline to Nevada so they can dump the sludge onto low value real estate in a red state.
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You forgot Lutetium, you insensitive clod!
Trivial usage (Score:3, Insightful)
Going by the linked ABC article - and the fact the only thing the company has announced was it's annual report today (which isn't really news as the projects/mines would already have been known).
Scandium sells for $5,000/kg. According to the annual report, there is only current use of 5t a year (I assume worldwide). So that's only $25 million a year worth of output. That's pocket change for a mine.
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For those wondering how he got the $25 million/year figure: $5,000/kg is $2267.96/lb, 5 metric tons is 11,023 lbs. $2267.96/lb * 11,023 lbs = $24,999,723.08 which happens to be very close to $25 million.
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Strange how in the USA we have "math" and in Europe, they call it "maths". But here in the USA, we have "sports", while in Europe they call it "sport".
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Yeah. I was kinda wondering why the conversion to imperial units.
Damnit USA, use real numbers like the rest of the world!
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Just wondering (Score:1)
.. if we found an ancient civilization's landfill.
Metallica Metals (Score:3, Funny)
http://www.metallicaminerals.com.au/board_of_directors [metallicaminerals.com.au]
James Hetfield
Lars Ulrich
Kirk Hammett
Robert Trujillo
Let the suing being
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http://www.metallicaminerals.com.au/board_of_directors [metallicaminerals.com.au]
James Hetfield Lars Ulrich Kirk Hammett Robert Trujillo
Let the suing being
They forced Jason Newsted to sell his shares before he quit the band, and I have heard that Jason is going to sue them because of hostile takeover of the company and his loss of profits from this scandium deposits. ps. Jason is better basist than Trujillo! And Metallica ended in 1991!
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Jason is better basist than Trujillo!
You'd never know it, the way Lars mixed the albums. There's no bass at all in AJFA.
And Metallica ended in 1991!
Metallica was never all that great, if you go by the studio albums. Someone needs to steal all the master tapes, then create new mixes so you can hear Cliff and Jason in the first 4 albums, and release them on BitTorrent. Cliff was the real genius behind the band, and after he died, they started a downward spiral; the first two albums after him (AJFA and the
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This just in... (Score:5, Funny)
...Message from White House...
Australia found to harbor terrorists. Military action advised.
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Dood they have Mad Max and Crocodile Hunter, better not fuck with them...
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Is Crocodile Dundee too old to put up a fight? (From seeing his age at IMDB, I guess he is...)
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He lives in the US anyway. Tax exile.
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He lives in the US anyway. Tax exile.
Really, you think it has nothing to do with the fact that his wife is a US citizen? If he was living in one of those European principalities or dodgy Caribbean islands you might have a point.
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He just fights with a Subaru now
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...Message from White House...
Australia found to harbor terrorists. Military action advised.
Headline from 2012
US Forces Fail to Stop Koala Drop Bear Insurgency in Australia.
Fear the drop bear.
P.S. it's harbour
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You fail. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_and_British_English_spelling_differences [wikipedia.org]
Most words ending in an unstressed -our in British English (e.g. colour, flavour, honour, neighbour, rumour, labour, humour, harbour) end in -or in American English (cf. color, flavor, honor, neighbor, rumor, labor, humor, harbor). Wherever the vowel is unreduced in pronunciation, this does not occur: e.g. contour, velour, paramour and troubadour are spelled thus the same everywhere.
Most words of this category derive fr
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In Australia we speak British English (of course you know that because you actually read the wikipedia article you copy/pasted, didn't you).
We dont Harbor anything, that's a spelling error.
P.S. Just to confuse you, labour and Labor are both correct spellings with different meanings in Australian and British English.
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In Australia we speak British English (of course you know that because you actually read the wikipedia article you copy/pasted, didn't you).
You do understand your quaint local customs will be of scant interest to a US occupying force that will view extraneous usage of the letter 'u' as a clear sign that you are an insurgent?
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That's Ok, the flora and fauna [tvtropes.org] will sort them out.
FTFA (Score:1)
"With scadnium selling currently selling for $5,000 a kilo, owner Metallica Metals says it will double the size of a planned cobalt and nickel mine at the site."
Metallica was right when they wrote 'Battery' many years ago..
Scandium == Chemical-X ?!? (Score:1)
Wait, so the Powerpuff Girls (formerly known as the Kickass Girls) are really from Down Under?
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Why else do you think so many monsters attack them from the sea? What with global warming altering ocean currents, and the radioactive seawater from nearby Japan, how is it possible that they could be from anywhere ELSE but Australia?
Be that as it may, a contact of mine from QLD insists that he had never even heard of the diminutive superheroines until I started asking about them, so they must be quite good at press manipulation down there.
I JUST WANT TO CELEBRATE (Score:2)
Another day of mining!
You may have found it... (Score:1)
but can you compete with the prices from China? Will your employees work for slave^H^H^H^H^H freedom wages?
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Rare earth? really? (Score:2)
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According to the ever-reliable wikipedia, Scandium has "traditionally" been classified with the rare earth metal on account of chemical similarity to the lanthanoid elements, and generally being found in nature alongside said elements.
How about (Score:4, Funny)
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Say what you want about Australia's leaders being in bed with the US, but right now mining + free trade is keeping our economy chugging along pretty well (and has been for the last few decades). Protecting inefficient industries simply delays the inevitable whilst giving those in said industries free reign over pricing in local markets. Case in point: bananas. Bilateral FTAs are a win-win situation.
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Protecting inefficient industries simply delays the inevitable whilst giving those in said industries free reign over pricing in local markets
Where "efficient" generally means outsourcing to a country with lax labour and human rights enforcement.
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Like the free trade agreement that prevents us from exporting beef to the Americas.
I think you need to read up on what those free trade agreements entail. They're pretty one sided (and not on Oz's favour), The US trade agreement in particular specifically prevents a lot of exports and shoe horns more then a few US laws on us without even asking our permission.
Also the mining companies need to pull their heads and arse
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Free trade agreements are good when the two countries involved are similar, and are on a "level playing field": similar taxes, labor rates, etc.
They're not good when it's with a country where the labor rate is dirt-cheap, because there's no way to compete with that while maintaining your standard of living; then it becomes a race to the bottom. Of course, for some goods, you do have to take into account external factors like the environment/climate: for instance, bananas grow really well in Central America
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That's not the point of an FTA. Have a look at economic convergence [wikimedia.org] and comparative advantage [wikimedia.org].
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Too bad that economic theory is basically a load of crap (the comparative advantage one, the convergence one is true). If one country has cheaper labor than the other, then all the production is going to move to that country; it's that simple. That's exactly what we're seeing in the USA.
That that theory is crap shouldn't be surprising, because much of economics is crap; it's a crap science, not a real science, and economists just make up stuff that sounds good to them because they have little way to actua
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If one country has cheaper labor than the other, then all the production is going to move to that country; it's that simple.
Wrong. Most labour intensive production will move to that country, because they have a comparative advantage in producing labour intensive products (or simply producing products in a labour intensive way). And that is where economic convergence comes in, as the country with an advantage in labour becomes wealthier, pay and living standards increase, and thus their comparative advantage in labour decreases. Eventually, the economy of both countries would equalize, and grow at the same (or at a similar) rate.
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You also have to take into account how much of the service economy that that one industry supports. All the mine workers have to rent housing, buy food, buy cars, get medical attention, buy junk at whatever the Australian equivalent of Walmart is, etc. The mine company itself also uses other services from the local economy; transportation services, specialized products (do they buy the mining machines locally, or import them from other countries?), etc.
While 9% + service jobs probably isn't a majority of
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Makes you wonder how much rare earths were left in the slag pile of former mines.
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Australia's an industrialized English-speaking federation of states with a dedicated capital territory that fought at our side in World War I, World War II, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq I, Afghanistan, and Iraq II. And we've got a defense agreement and a free trade agreement with them.
Why would we bother to invade? They're already US!
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Australia's an industrialized English-speaking federation of states with a dedicated capital territory that fought at our side in World War I, World War II, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq I, Afghanistan, and Iraq II. And we've got a defense agreement and a free trade agreement with them.
Why would we bother to invade? They're already US!
... despite the fact that Australia (and NZ, for that matter) were rather poorly used by Britain in WWI and by the U.S. in WWII.
Great (Score:2)
Finally something good comes out of Australia (Score:1)
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Just to continue: sugar is a drug, soap is a drug, salt is one.
"drug" comes from "dried" (or better from its middle age equivalent dröge), and it means a substance that is extracted and refined from natural sources. That's why the drugstore is called as it is. And that's why "synthetic drug" is a paradoxon, as per definitionem something synthetic can't be a drug (e.g. from natural sources).
For some reason the word drug has been associated with the idea of intoxication and addiction.
This is (Score:2)
Scandi-lous!
*ducks*
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Let me be the umpteenth person.. (Score:2)
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Oh no not Bob Katter [wikipedia.org].
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The Wikipedia article on him doesn't seem to have a picture of him. They must not have been able to find a picture of him without that ridiculous hat.
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I live in Victoria so there is little chance of me taking a picture of him for wikipedia. Maybe his brother could submit one?
Rare earths are not quite ... rare (Score:5, Informative)
In fact there is a dude that is petitioning to be allowed to extract "rare" earth metal and be allowed to store the thorium. This one mine will be able to produce all the energy the US needs as a
http://energyfromthorium.com/2011/03/10/free-thorium/
Not only China (Score:2)
China? Everybody knows Un'goro Crater is the best place for that stuff.
Ob (Score:2)
Bruce 1: Strewth mate, there's bloomin' tons of it! ... ... it's earth, cobber.
Bruce 2: Yeah mate, fair dinkum.
Bruce 1: So it's not rare, then?
Bruce 2: Nope.
Bruce 1: Blue ruin! So basically
Bruce 2:
Bruce 1: Pub?
Bruce 2: No worries!
I thought ... (Score:2)
In related news... (Score:2)
Rare Earth? (Score:2)
And since there was a pre-existing mine there ... (Score:2)
Where is it going to be refined?
(Sorry, I'm a geologist. Little details like that occur to me, and just might be important. But what would I know?)
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God I hate that name for an element.
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It's actually a real word, that's been in use for many decades.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unobtainium [wikipedia.org]
Yes, I agree that it shouldn't have been used for Avatar. But its use predated the movie.
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It's not that there isn't refining expertise left in America.
There is.
The problem is that it's expensive, because we have environmental regulations, because we have safety regulations to protect our workers -- China? I don't know if they technically do or not, but effectively they do not, and that means it's much, much cheaper to do all the dirty nasty dangerous refining over there and shit all over their environment. Because China likes money more than they like things living -- trees, grass, any individ
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>> As for TFA, it looks like China trying to hoard all the rare earth metals is gonna bite them right in the ass. Nobody was really looking as long as China was selling
This is a common occurrence in the mining industry, when the public hears about a future shortage or someone comes in to corner the markets, the market fills in the demand.
a good documented case for this is Uranium in the late 40's to 50'. I do not have the fact's to link to, so please accept it with subject to validation: in the late 4
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To quote from the official scriptment [docstoc.com]:
The backstory to Avatar was actually a lot more fleshed out and interesting than used in the movie, and they stuck to real science more t
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Is there something about China that would give them a cost advantage in rare-earth processing in the way they have a cost advantage in the production of things like iPhones, Nike shoes and circular saws? Or could the US (who would have obvious national interest concerns about being so reliant on China for these important metals) build their own processing facilities for all these non-Chinese rare earth deposits everyone hears about?
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A complete lack of [enforced] environmental protection laws?
A complete disregard for the value of any particular individual life (other than the aristocracy, of course)?
Oh, and slave labour as an expendable workforce....