May it never be said John doesnt read odd stuff! . . . Just for fun--or maybe not: an article focused on one rare metal, rhenium. (It winds up mentioning 18 other metals as well.) I find it fascinating to see how, by viewing a subject from one angle, as this article does, one sees geopolitical issues in a very different light. The article doesnt get deep into the geopolitics. It hints at them by discussing the metals uses. But forgetting the geopolitics, heres one minor point for consideration: With just 50 tons or so produced worldwide each year, Rhenium is a rare metal by any definition. . . . “It takes, on Average, approximately 120 metric tons (264,554 pounds) . . . of copper ore to produce 1 ounce of Rhenium – or the equivalent of five U.S. quarter coins. But . . . the proposed Resolution Copper mine in Arizona, projected to generate more than 20 tons of Rhenium per year as a copper by-product. . . . [The mine] would provide for the first time a steady U.S. supply of Rhenium that would allow metallurgical engineers to design in the element’s remarkable physical properties, rather than engineer-out Rhenium needs the U.S. market cannot meet and which would only deepen foreign dependency. And yet the copper mine in question remains in limbo, hung up in the very same U.S. House that passed the Defense Authorization Act — by mine opponents who claim the project will imperil a Native American sacred site, despite two rulings by the U.S. Forest Service that such concerns have no basis in fact.
Posted on: Tue, 26 Nov 2013 12:05:29 +0000
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