Pentagon pumps $29.9M into bid to turn waste into critical minerals

The US Department of Defense is asserting its desire to be an integral part of the American rare earths and critical minerals supply chain with a deal to establish a domestic pipeline of gallium and scandium production. The DoD on Thursday announced it had awarded Texas-based ElementUSA $29.9 million to go toward developing a …

[Charlie Clark]

Easy

Just pay a Chinese chemist a fraction of that and they'll tell you.

[Professor_Iron]

Re: Easy

China has export bans on mineral processing technologies. It's illegal for a Chinese chemist to do so and they would be hunted by overseas police in every Western city.

Though it's not really the reactions that we don't understand, but the technological know-how and expertise. What you'd really need is a dozen Chinese chemist to run the whole operations for the first few years.

[Jellied Eel]

Re: Soup to nuts

Though it's not really the reactions that we don't understand, but the technological know-how and expertise. What you'd really need is a dozen Chinese chemist to run the whole operations for the first few years.

Gallium nuts probably aren't that useful, but this place probably is-

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mountain_Pass_Rare_Earth_Mine

Production expanded greatly in the 1960s, to supply demand for europium used in color television screens. The mine produced 70 percent of the world’s rare earths supplies until the early 1980s

Which has long interested me as an example of technological & political progress vs need. So we no longer needed eurpium for CRTs and environmentalists made mining and refining ever more expensive in the US. But then the dash for 'rare' earths is also a case for waste reprocessing and recycling given lots of it sits in spoil heaps because at the time, demand was for europium, not the other elements in the bastanite. Expanding mining or refining in California might get expensive due to the irony of EV drivers whining along to protests, but there's always Bauxite, Arkansas which probably has a lot of waste from their aluminium mining.

So challenge would seem to be needing chemical engineers who can develop refineries that can extract 'rare' earths in a safe enough manner that might compete with mineral rich countries that don't have the same regulatory overburden as the US, or much of the West.. Who want the product, but don't want to deal with any of the mess. And then also maintaining a pipeline of chemsists and chemical engineering grads in the face of political pressure to ban & shut down their jobs, either through direct regulation or indirect challenges like high energy costs.

[Roland6]

Re: Soup to nuts

> So challenge would seem to be…

I would not be surprised if the US is still exporting eWaste ie. Waste rich in critical minerals, to China, rather than stockpiling it for local reprocessing…

[Anonymous Coward]

Classic Uncle Sam

Seed industry with a sodding great "R&D" grant. Once it's established, it has no investment capital to pay back and can undercut everybody to build a giant monopoly. You wanna know how well that works? Ask Boeing!

[Anonymous Coward]

Rio Tinto

Are not Canadian - the mining and smelting operations in question are in Canada, but Rio Tinto is an Anglo-Australian corporation.

[Yet Another Anonymous coward]

Re: Rio Tinto

Time for the USA to invade Australia ?

The USA vs the Emu

[Anonymous Coward]

The damage done

> Pentagon pumps $29.9M into bid to turn waste into critical minerals

And Silicon Valley pumps Billions into turning critical minerals into waste. :-(

_{Planned obsolescence anyone?}