Rare earths

[fastoy]

Toshiba Corp. has developed a technology for making motor
magnets that does not rely on dysprosium, a rare-earth metal almost entirely supplied by China, the Nikkei reported in its Wednesday morning edition.
Instead, the new technology uses samarium, another rare-earth metal in ample supply in Australia and the U.S. Toshiba aims to apply the magnets to consumer electronics in one
year and also hopes to commercialize them for electric vehicles.

To make motors, most manufacturers currently add a small amount of dysprosium to neodymium, another rare earth, to lift performance. But dysprosium beds are concentrated
in China.

To dispel concerns about stable supplies, Toshiba came up with an alternative technology by using a samarium-cobalt combination.

Samarium-cobalt magnets are sometimes used in tandem with neodymium magnets, but when
used alone their performance has been inadequate. By reducing the cobalt content by around 15% and replacing it with iron, the company has succeeded in improving the magnetic force by 10%.

Toshiba engineers believe that they can produce magnets with comparable performance to neodymium offerings by changing the material makeup for a 10-20% higher magnetic force.

Prices will also be lower due to the reduced use of expensive cobalt.

[garry]

I've got three rare earth plays on the go at the moment, each with a longish term in mind. There's not much doubt that now China has exposed its big elbows on the global REE discussion the world is getting pretty leery of their antics, and innovations such as the above will become more commonplace. Mind you the Japanese will have to be very innovative with rare earth tech because they are lowly regarded in China

Nonetheless, on a global scale rare earth useage is on the up because a raft of new technologies have been coming to the fore. Indeed the late 20th century saw a brand new gold rush with REE applications so I don't think the conversation will fade much. China's aim of course is not to completely shut off supply, rather, its more to do with technology transfer, where a given non China company can access all the rare earths it needs so long as its manufacturing base is planted on Chinese soil. In other words they are using the REE supply chain to get smarter. Whereas we in Oz know nothing of these tactics, instead we just aim to quarry the stuff.

Two items should fire in the front half of the 21st century, and REE is one of them. The other is cleaner energy ...ie: Nuclear, where it is quite evident China has been stockpiling vast quantities of uranium for the changeover.

Of note. ... Areva are still confident about their process to neutralise radio active waste