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CAshes of glass could be the next source of elements that the US defense industry uses for everything from night vision goggles to smart bomb gyroscopes.
The Senate Committee on Armed Forces has included a provision in its recent defense budget for 2020 authorizing an increase in Pentagon funding to develop capacity for the production of rare earth elements from coal ash, coal remnants burned, while China threatens to restrict its supplies.
"[Y]you have to make sure that you have either [a] access to these stocks, "said Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense David Norquist, Washington Examiner. "And so it's an area in which, when you look at the system and your future production, [you] question: do I have them? Do I have enough? Do I have access to them? Where are they produced? And I think Congress needs to focus on this place. "
A 2016 Ministry of Commerce survey found that 66 percent of respondents, mostly defense ministry salespeople, imported rare earths. Rare earths such as neodymium and dysprosium may not be known names, but they are found in all types of phones, from cell phones to F-35 fighter jets. Survey.
The country has threatened to stifle rare earth reserves by fighting the Trump administration against trade policies.
"I think one of the reasons we see them threatened is that they do not have many other ways to leverage the same thing as the US," he said. Zack Cooper, a university researcher specializing in competition between China and China. American Enterprise Institute. "The United States not only controls the financial system largely, but also almost everything that is traded in the world is traded for money … so they have to find the places where they have an asymmetry, and is one of the few, so I'm not surprised that they threaten to use it. "
Unlike their name, rare earths are quite common. But they are scattered on the surface of the Earth in minute amounts that it is extremely difficult to separate from surrounding minerals. This makes the production of rare earths not only expensive but extremely dirty. Their extraction involves a variety of processes that are harmful to the environment. Because rare earths offer few benefits, the last American mine closed in 2015.
China, home to about a third of the world's rare earth reserves, has captured the market by subsidizing its production and accepting environmental costs. Last year, it produced 120,000 tonnes of rare earths, compared with 15,000 tonnes in the United States.
China has already shown its willingness to use its rare earth advantage as a weapon. Beijing cut rare earth exports to Japan during a conflict in 2010, scary markets.
"This sent shock waves across Japan as this was going to affect their supply chain for a number of items such as computers and mobile phones," said Dean Cheng, senior researcher. specialized in Chinese military capabilities at the Heritage Foundation. "But it was also the first time the Chinese did something that worried people but never saw it, namely that they would never use their economic might for political purposes."
This embargo was lifted in 2015, but the message to the rare earth-dependent countries was clear: China may not be a reliable source. According to the experts, this is probably the reason why Congress addressed the issue. This is also why they focus on coal ash, which contains traces of rare earths.
According to researchers at the Rochester Institute of Technology, the United States produces nearly 80 million tons of coal ash a year, from which rare earths could be derived.
"[Rare earth elements] of coal ash is technically feasible but [it’s] not clear how much it will cost compared to other options, "Eric Williams, one of the researchers, said at the Washington Examiner.
The government has already invested in some methods of extracting coal ash, although none has proven commercially profitable. But Williams and fellow researchers believe that a method using compressed carbon dioxide to extract rare earths, similar to the way caffeine is extracted from coffee beans, could be an affordable solution. They also argue that this could be beneficial for the coal industry as the country moves away from coal-fired power plants.
Even if China were to cut rare earth exports, some experts believe that the impact could be limited, given that Beijing had already shown its hand. Some countries, such as Brazil and Vietnam, have focused on the export of rare earths, which represents an alternative supply chain.
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