Over the past few days, Australia’s ABC Radio National broadcast not one, but two items on rare earth metals, to both of which I heartily recommend listening. The first item was broadcast on the Breakfast program on Friday, and lasts a little over 6 minutes.  It’s an introductory piece on the subject, but spends significant time [...]

As you may already know by now, the Magnetics 2010 conference will be held January 28-29, 2010 at the Disney Hilton in Orlando, Florida. Per the folks organizing the conference, the conference “will feature an interactive exhibit hall, the chance to attend pre-conference workshops, unmatched networking/business opportunities and more than 20 technical presentation“. The Conference [...]

My thanks to RareMetalBlog’s Ian London for pointing this article out: Oct. 27, 2009 – by Tracey Bryant – The University of Delaware has won a $4.4 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA-E) to lead a multidisciplinary, multi-institutional research project to develop the next generation of high-performance permanent [...]

Last weekend, Democrat US Senator Chuck Schumer of NY made headlines with his comments on a recent plan to fund a wind farm in Texas, using Federal stimulus money to pay for Chinese-built wind turbines. Rare metals commentator and analyst Jack Lifton has posted a new article on the subject, called “The Rare Earth Crisis [...]

UK Press Association – A “highly innovative” fridge which will use magnets to cool food is being developed as a more environmentally-friendly alternative to current technology, the Carbon Trust has said. The trust, along with white goods manufacturer Whirlpool, is backing the project to develop a domestic refrigerator based on the scientific principle that certain [...]

The Defense Metals Technology Center [DMTC], based in North Canton, Ohio, is hosting its 2nd Annual Strategic Materials Conference [SMC] during Feb 1-2, 2010 in Cleveland, Ohio. According to the DMTC Web site: The Defense Metals Technology Center (DMTC) was formed in January, 2007 in order to establish an industrial base capable of affordably producing [...]

Earlier today, I was pleased to learn that the Organizing Committee of the 21st International Workshop on Rare Earth Permanent Magnets and the Applications [REPM10] announced their first Call for Abstracts.  This meeting takes places in Bled, Slovenia from August 29 to September 2, 2010. Held every two years, the Workshop was inaugurated in 1974 [...]

So the day finally came.  DC permanent magnet motor vs. AC induction motor. Nickel metal hydride vs. Lithium-ion. Prius vs. Roadster… The place? Denmark… home of wind turbines, pickled herring and Kierkegaard. Not the first place you might expect the Prius and Roadster to come together, but the Fates must have had their reasons. Steen [...]

As I’ve posted about extensively here at Terra Magnetica, the US National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2010 contained language that required that the Federal government look at the role of rare earth materials in the US defense supply chain. Earlier this week, the bill was finally signed into law by President Obama. Section [...]

Earlier today, the United States Magnet Materials Association [USMMA] announced the formation of a new Advisory Board, comprising three highly-respected members of the magnetics & rare earths community. Joining the USMMA in this capacity are: Jack Lifton, of Jack Lifton LLC and The Jack Lifton Report, who is a well known commentator and consultant with [...]