Tim Worstall

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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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.

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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 [...]

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This press release amused: Highlights of Initial Surface Soil Sample Program: * The best sample assay returned a 217 ppm scandium value, * Eleven soil samples contained +50 ppm scandium, of which five samples exceeded 85 ppm and three exceeded 150 ppm, * The eleven soil samples were clustered within an area measuring 700 x [...]

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As you regular readers will know, I’m the scandium man. And as the scandium man I’ve been working on a new source for scandium, demand currently being higher than supply. In the last three days I’ve had people looking for multi-year supplies….note, this is just the enquiries of the last three days…..of $12 millions’ worth. [...]

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However the energy secretary, Steven Chu, has argued that the 2007 law does not amount to a blanket ban on all incandescent bulbs. But it does require those bulbs to be more efficient. “These standards do not ban incandescent bulbs,” Chu told a conference call with reporters. “You’re still going to be able to buy [...]

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Care to let me have a copy of this paper? Deep-sea mud in the Pacific Ocean as a potential resource for rare-earth elements   Thank you, I have this now.

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I’m looking for the people who mine/export columbite and tantalite from Madagascar. This post is something of a hope: maybe someone will find it via Google, someone who is in that industry. If you are one of those people that either mines or exports the two minerals, columbite and tantalite, from Madagascar, then could you [...]

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You’ll have heard much about “gold-plated” public sector pensions this week, but can you guess the discrete group of public sector employees whose pensions are not so much gold-plated, or even platinum-plated, as rhodium-plated – metaphorically clad in Earth’s most precious metal? Aaargh! Rhodium is a precious metal, yes. But “precious metal” has a meaning [...]

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Talk to a lot of people about the business pages of a newspaper and they’ll tell you they don’t understand all that stuff, that it’s all gobbledygook. That they can’t quite get a handle on it (and, no, they haven’t really tried). It’s a dangerous view and not merely for the obvious reasons of pensions, [...]

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Eh? Norway has oil. Switzerland’s a tax haven. Both have far, far smaller populations than the UK, accounting for their far higher GDPs per capita (and hence relative prosperity). You what? A small population means a high GDP per capita? Err, tell that to Kiribati, Cape Verde, Tuvalu, The Comoros, why don’t you? And actually, [...]

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A minerals company says it could start processing scandium from a mine at Greenvale, west of Townsville in North Queensland, within three years. Metallica Minerals is completing a feasibility study into the mine, which could require up to $500 million in capital works. Two things. 1) They’re never going to raise that much capital. 2) [...]

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Tyler notes this paper from Jeremy Grantham and more specifically, this line: The highest percentage of any metal resource that China consumes is iron ore, at a barely comprehensible 47% of world consumption. Now, essentially, Grantham is saying that we’re all doomed (for a particular value of “doom”) because commodity prices are rising instead of,  [...]

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