Tim Worstall

Catalytic converters are stolen because they contain precious metals – platinum, palladium and rhodium – which can be recycled. The AA says it has seen an increase in thefts since the beginning of the credit crunch in 2008, when prices for precious metals started spiralling. The catalytic converter was stolen from Jane Green’s Land Rover [...]

[Read more →]

Via, this: Stray showers of mercury getting into food chain Poisonous metal released as a vapour by burning fuel, then falls back to Earth and gets absorbed by the aquatic ecosystem Given that this has been happening for a century or two and we’re not all murdered in our beds by the pollution, should we [...]

[Read more →]

No, I’m not looking for someone to come and design a system for me. Rather, I’m just looking for a pointer to how I ought to be thinking about things. OK, so what I’ve got (conceptually this is) is a tailings/gangue pile. From a granitic greisen. Originally mined for Sn/W I know that this tailings [...]

[Read more →]

Mikhail Prokhorov, Russia’s third richest man, to challenge Putin Nickel magnate appeals to angry middle class for presidency – but some claim he is merely a Kremlin stooge For sale only to close friends of V Putin.

[Read more →]

A full copy of this paper would be much appreciated. http://www.jstor.org/pss/93028 “On Scandium” by Sir William Crookes, 1908. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. I’ve read bits and pieces of this. Would like to read the whole thing though. From what I’ve read so far it holds up remarkably well. And the New Year [...]

[Read more →]

If so, could you get him to contact me? For somewhere in the PWC system there is a gremlin conspiring to make him look like an idiot. Rare earth metals scarcity: A ‘ticking timebomb’ for the world, asks PwC? This has gone out over the wires, as the previous post shows picked up by the [...]

[Read more →]

Rare earth metal shortage a ‘ticking time-bomb’ A “ticking time-bomb” looms over several core manufacturing industries, experts have warned, due to a growing shortage of “rare earth” metals. Hmm, that’s strange, given that there are several large rare earth mines due to come online in the next couple of years. What shortage? Accounts PricewaterhouseCoopers said [...]

[Read more →]

The DRC should be one of Africa‘s richest countries. It has a mineral wealth estimated to be around $24 trillion (£15tn). There are huge deposits of cobalt, diamonds, gold, copper, oil and 80% of the world’s supplies of coltan ore – a valuable mineral used in computers and mobile phones. So, “coltan” is the NGO [...]

[Read more →]

That’s the answer to this: Others, for example the entrant who asked: “What happens if you mix together all of the substances from the periodic table”, appeared more keen to satisfy a burning curiosity. You get dirt. Depending upon how you mix them, in what quantities, what the original state was (for example, if you [...]

[Read more →]

It takes one tonne of rock to produce enough gold particles to fashion a wedding ring. Blimey, that’s a rich mine, no wonder they’re so keen to get digging in a national park. A more normal gold mine would be 1 gramme per tonne rock. And unless you’re at the very cheap end of the [...]

[Read more →]

So, which is the university in the Czech Republic which does metals and mining then? In the UK I’d start with Cambourne School of Mines, maybe the (Royal?) School of Mines at Imperial. In Germany, at Freiberg. But where do I start in the Czech Republic? Particularly, I want to find out about the history [...]

[Read more →]

I think we’ve a couple of Germany based readers here. So, a particularly technical question. I’m highly likely to need a part time translator sometime soon. German to English and vice versa, in Germany, of course. Some investigation work on the phone, some simultaneous translation. Absolutely does not have to be a trained translator. We’re [...]

[Read more →]

This is how the US government came to own ships named SS Stage Door Canteen…… This very example is something that’s running around my head at present. Say there was a plan (entirely ephemeral, unlikely to be ever realised, but something that is at least possible in the physics of this universe) which would require [...]

[Read more →]

I’ve, as you might imagine, a Google alert set up for “scandium”. Which dropped this into my email. With the introduction of new materials in fishing and apparel markets, Element 21 changed its name from Element 21 Golf Company to American Rare Earths and … Ooooh, aye? Element 21? That’s scandium that is. So who [...]

[Read more →]

Able to give me a telephone number to track these peeps down to? NÁZEV: GEOMET s.r.o. GEOMET s.r.o. – náhled vizuálního zobrazení vztahů obchodního rejstříku IČO: 27752976 DIČ: CZ27752976 ADRESA: Přístavní 531/24, Praha 7 17000 ZÁKL. KAPITÁL: 200000 Kč

[Read more →]

Yes, there’s lots of cable theft going on. Yes, it’s a cash in hand industry. It pretty much has to be really. All recycling industries face exactly the same problem, which is that their economics are entirely the reverse of normal retail economics. We all understand that if you’ve a container load of PCs, each [...]

[Read more →]

David Cameron has warned Russia that corruption, bureaucracy and an inconsistent approach to the rule of law was holding back trade relations with Britain. Rilly? I’ve had a shipment stuck in customs for a month now. They’re wanting a bribe. And the thing is, I’d be entirely happy to pay such a bribe: if I [...]

[Read more →]

So, ya’kno’, those horrible conflict minerals? Fueling the Congo violence? So we’ll all agree to track what comes from where and peace will reign, kittens will gambol in the African sun and life will be better? The “Loi Obama” or Obama Law — as the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform act of 2010 has become known [...]

[Read more →]

OK, so, we now have financial guy to keep me in line, engineering guy to actually do stuff, crowdsourcing investment site mulling over the specific changes we would need…..have to nail down the science guy still. But progress is being made.

[Read more →]

One of the little oddities about English law is that you can go and ask anyone you like to invest in your adventure. You don’t have to, as in the US, file paperwork and agree to certain restrictions. You can just ask people “would you like to buy some shares in my company” and if [...]

[Read more →]