It also asks some questions on the lack of an accelerated pace for funding North American rare earth initiatives, and includes one hypothetical situation which, if realized, has the potential to severely disrupt the present rare earth supply chain, long before we can handle such a disruption.

Check the article out, and feel free to leave comments either here or over there, on what you read.

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 discussing the environmental issues surrounding rare earth production in Australia. You can listen to the piece on the program’s Rare Earths Metals segment Web page or by clicking below:

ABC Radio National Breakfast: Rare Earth Metals

The second piece, first broadcast on the Background Briefing program this past Sunday morning, lasts for over 45 minutes and is an comprehensive, in-depth study of the rare earth metals, their markets and associated supply chain, environmental and political issues.There is also a pretty decent-sized portion on rare earth permanent magnets and their applications, for which, in the interests of full disclosure, I was interviewed :-)

As producer and narrator Stan Correy says:

China currently produces about 95% of the world’s rare earths, which are metals which are essential to modern living and used all around us every day. In business it’s a volatile mix, with complex political alchemy for every government, including Australia.

The program features several interviews of a variety of individuals from a number of different sectors, in addition to yours truly.

You can listen to the piece on the Background Briefing Rare Earths and China program Web page or by clicking below:

ABC Radio National Background Briefing: Rare Earths and China

Stan did a great job in explaining what can be a difficult subject to convey.  He also included a link back to Terra Magnetica – so thanks, Stan, for that!

The presentation covered a range of related topics, starting with the growing challenge of global energy usage.  Between 1971 and 2005 we have seen an approximate doubling of the amount of energy consumed worldwide.  The increase has primarily occurred outside of the OECD countries, though absolute consumption in the OECD countries is still just under half of the total.  In 2005, the rate of total global energy usage was approximately 15.1 TW – equivalent to the energy to be found in approximately 77.5 billion barrels of oil [though obviously much of that is not produced from coal, nuclear fission and other sources]!  As a point of reference, Canada and the USA consume about 25% of that energy.  A number of organizations project that energy consumption will grow by over 50% in the period from 2005 to 2030, and obviously, that energy has to come from somewhere.

The presentation then covered wind turbine technology, hydroelectricity, ocean-based energy production, and some information on solar energy.  In all of these technologies, permanent magnets have a role to play, though in some cases it might not be as obvious as in others.  I also went on to discuss a number of case studies where the use of permanent magnet technologies in the oil & gas exploration and production industries, has seen a dramatic reduction in the impact of these activities on the environment.

Over the next few posts here, I’ll take a closer look at the specific technology-related topics covered in my original presentation, for review and further expansion.  In the meantime, feel free to download the entire presentation from here.