Last week, Bloomberg reported that Siemens AG is launching a new effort aimed at reducing its dependence on Chinese rare earth minerals. Like other major wind turbine manufacturers, Siemens is heavily dependent upon China for metals such as dysprosium and neodymium. These specific metals (more…)

Japanese geologists say they have located vast deposits of rare earth minerals — crucial to the production of high-tech electronics and components of the emerging green energy industry — 2 to 4 miles below the surface of the Pacific Ocean.

A team led by University of Tokyo researcher (more…)

This week I’ve been examining the rare earth materials critical to a host of clean technology applications. The intention is to produce an accurate forecast of rare earth demand from the clean technology industry.

As we’ve talked about before, several rare earth metals with unique chemical and (more…)

(Reuters) – The European Parliament proposed stricter rules on Thursday to halt what has become Europe’s fastest growing type of waste: discarded mobile phones, computers and other electronic devices.

European Union lawmakers said they wanted member states to collect at least 85 percent of discarded electronics by 2016, compared with only 33 percent today. (more…)

As many countries in the world race to achieve a variety of renewable energy goals time has to be set aside to determine just how those goals will be achieved. With a rivalry that feels almost like a remnant from the Cold War reignited, China and the United States both seemed to be going at it to prove that they can be the renewable energy leaders of the world. China, (more…)