Posts Tagged ‘high tech’
Massive Undersea Discovery of Rare Earth Elements May Break Chinese Monopoly
Rare earths--in case you missed last year’s and China’s short-lived that rattled some Japanese and Western industries--are a group of metals that are integral to several cutting-edge technologies, including batteries, green technologies like wind turbines, and next-gen military technologies. They’re also used in lots of everyday technologies that are vital to developed economies, things like smartphones and computer monitors.
In short, the world needs rare earths and as developing economies continue their rapid upward climbs the world will need even more of them. Currently China controls 97 percent of the world’s usable supplies, and that’s been a source of tension as Chinese leaders have scaled back exports to protect industries at home. So the idea that there are perhaps hundreds of billions of tons of untapped rare earths lying in international waters is huge.
But that’s just the first of many angles to this story. For instance, how do we get to the minerals? The two sites named by the Japanese researchers are near Tahiti and Hawaii in international waters ranging from 11,500 to 20,000 feet. Deep sea mining of manganese (and copper and nickel) is in the Pacific, and so some of the technology there might be applicable, as might some of hardware being developed by oil and gas explorers seeking to tap deeper and deeper energy reserves.
Next, there are environmental concerns. The fact that these reserves are in international waters could complicate regulation of any undersea mining activities, and ocean floor ecosystems could be disrupted by the dredging of huge swaths of the seabed.
Then there’s the question of whether undersea mining of rare earths is commercially viable? It may be that getting to these seabed deposits is so expensive as to be prohibitive. Or the discovery might lead to the development of entire fleets of seafloor mining robots. Whatever the future developments may be, the immediate impact is limited: China’s grip on the rare earths market is no less strong today as it was yesterday, and it’s not likely to change in the foreseeable future.
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Russia Is Creating a DARPA of its Own to Drive Wild Technological Innovation
The initiative grows out of the fact that Russia’s modern military is mostly based on upgrading Soviet-era technology, a model that’s increasingly unsustainable the longer it persists. But while that might raise the eyebrows of some hawks who fear a Russian military resurgence, it also is an extension of President Dmitry Medvedev’s push to diversify Russia’s economy away from oil and gas and into technology.
Let’s not forget that while DARPA has provided the U.S. with battlefield tech unrivaled throughout the world, it also gave us the bedrock of our space program, myriad medical technologies, and, not least of all, the Internet. In the meantime, it has dumped millions upon million of dollars into private industries large and small to drive the development of innovative, game-changing technologies. Alone, DARPA drives a small, un-bureaucratic economy that spans the defense, science, and technology sectors. In short, DARPA lets innovation run free, and that should be encouraged the world over.
And what if Russia’s DARPA analog begins developing military technologies that rival the technological superiority of our own? Well, DARPA has some experience in winning that kind of race as well.
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Shortage of Rare Earth Minerals May Cripple U.S. High-Tech, Scientists Warn Congress
On the sunnier side, rare earths could power a future generation of clean tech
China has supplied 91 percent of U.S. consumption of rare earths between 2005 and 2008, and continues to represent the world's largest rare earth exporter. But the Chinese have warned that their own domestic industry appetite for rare earths may eventually force them to stop exporting -- an action that would leave the U.S. high-tech industries crippled without other readily available supplies.
"The United States, not so long ago, was the world leader in producing and exporting rare earths," said Brad Miller, the Democratic Representative from North Carolina and chairman of the subcommittee. "Today, China is the world's leader."
Experts testified that China's state-owned mines had set artificially low prices for the rare earth market, and that Chinese manufacturers had also forced most U.S. rare earth and permanent magnet manufacturers out of business. Rare earth magnets represent a in Toyota's Prius hybrid and other clean tech.
Companies such as IBM have also begun investing in and other technologies that don't require rare earths, partly because of the dangers of relying too much upon foreign suppliers.
But there's also opportunity from investing in rare earths, besides avoiding a supply chain problem. Karl Gschneidner Jr., a senior metallurgist at the U.S. Department of Energy's Ames Laboratory in Iowa, called for the creation of a National Research Center on Rare Earths and Energy as well as a National Research Center for Magnetic Cooling.
Magnetic refrigeration is a hot new area for energy-efficient, green technology that can handle cooling and climate control. Cooling below room temperature currently takes up 15 percent of all the energy consumed in the U.S., but the rise of magnetic refrigeration could slash that by 5 percent.
Given all the energy problems with in the Information Age, we also imagine that Google and other companies might welcome magnetic refrigeration with open arms. That is, as long as the U.S. can secure its own domestic rare earth supply or find new overseas suppliers.