Future Trends - Recycling - Metals - Part II

FUTURE TRENDS – RECYCLING – METALS –
PART II
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An even bigger future problem for the U.S. than oil and gas is the reliance on imports for critical
to U.S. manufacturing metals and compounds. The following is a list of all metals in common
manufacturing use at present.
Common Metals (See Figure 1, “Periodic Table of Known Elements”)
Red means 100% net import reliance or extremely important to U.S, industry.
Orange means greater than 30% net import reliance
Department of Defense (DOD) Stockpiled
Element or Page % Net Import Most Important Top Importer
Critical Compound No. Reliance Uses (2011-2014 Unless
Noted)
Alumina 3 100 Aluminum Australia (33% in 2013)
Aluminum 3 40 Building Material, Electrical Canada (65%)
Antimony 6 84 Non-metal products Metal – China (68%)
Ore – Italy (64%)
Arsenic 8 100 Press. treated wood, GaAs China (89%)
semiconductors
Bauxite 3 100 Aluminum Jamaica (45% in 2013)
Barium (Barite) 10 79 Additive to oil well drilling fluid, China (80%)
Internal X-Rays
Beryllium 12 11 Aerospace metals, X-Ray Equip Kazakhstan (56%)
Bismuth 15 95 Chemical additives China (64%)
Boron 18 0 Fiberglass Turkey (80%)
Cadmium 20 0 Rechargeable batteries Canada (40%)
Calcium 23 0 Many Canada (94%)
Chromium 23 66 Stainless Steel South Africa (37%)
Cobalt 27 75 Gas Turbine Engines, Lithium-Ion China (19%) from Congo
Batteries ore
Copper 32 36 Copper Wiring Chile (51% for ore)
Gallium 35 100 Widespread Electronics Uses Germany (35%)
Germanium 37 85 Electronics, Semiconductors, Fiber China (68%)
Optics
Gold 40 0 Electrical and Electronics Mexico (41%)
Graphite 42 100 Defense-related materials and China (38%)
numerous industrial applications
Indium 45 100 Liquid Crystal Displays (LCDs) Canada (21%)
Iridium 47 100 Defense-related materials Since associated with
Platinum, probably South
Africa
Iron 48 0 “You name it” Canada (45%)
Lead 49 31 Lead-Acid Batteries Canada (57%)
Lithium 52 >60 Lithium-Ion Batteries Chile (58%)
Magnesium 56 43 Military pyrotechnics, auto body parts China (54%)
Manganese 59 100 Steel production Ore – Gabon (67%)
Ferromanganese –
South Africa (61%)
Mercury 63 0 Instruments Chile (32%)
Molybdenum 66 0 High-strength Steel Ferromolybdenum –
Chile (83%)
Ores – Mexico (31%)
SEE PART III FOR CONTINUATION

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A List of All Rare Earth Elements in Manufacturing Use (See Part III)
Atomic No. Element Symbol Use
21 Scandium Sc Aerospace framework, high-intensity street lamps, high
performance equipment
39 Yttrium Y TV sets, cancer treatment drugs, enhances strength of alloys
57 Lanthanum La Camera lenses, battery-electrodes, hydrogen storage
58 Cerium Ce Catalytic converters, colored glasses, steel production
59 Praseodymium Pr Super strong magnets, welding goggles, lasers
60 Neodymium Nd Extremely strong permanent magnets, microphones, electric
motors of hybrid automobiles, lasers
62 Samarium Sm Cancer treatment, nuclear reactor control rods, X-ray lasers
63 Europium Eu Color TV screens, fluorescent glass, genetic screening tests
64 Gadolinium Gd Shielding in nuclear reactors, nuclear marine propulsion,
increases in durability of alloys
65 Terbium Tb TV sets, fuel cells, sonar systems
66 Dysprosium Dy Commercial lighting, hard disk devices, transducers
67 Holmium Ho Lasers, glass coloring, high-strength magnets
68 Erbium Er Glass coloring, signal amplification of fiber optic cables,
metallurgical uses
69 Thulium Tm High efficiency lasers, portable X-ray machines, high
temperature superconductors
70 Ytterbium Yb Improves stainless steel, lasers, ground monitoring devices
71 Lutetium Lu Refining petroleum, LED light bulbs, integrated circuits
DOD Stockpiling Materials as of 2016
Go to “Future Trends – Recycling – Metals – Part I”.
Figure No. Page No. Title
1 70 Periodic Table of Known Elements
2 71 Aluminum Production in the United States
3 72 Copper Production/Consumption and Net Trade
4 73 Top U.S. Copper Mines
5 74 Top U.S. Gold Mines
6 75 Overall Steel Recycling Rate
7 76 Ferrous Scrap Melting Facility Recycling Map
8 78 Iron Ore Production/Consumption and Net Trade
9 79 Tope U.S. Molybdenum Mines

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Aluminum Production
From USGS report on Bauxite and Alumina:
Domestic Production and Use: Nearly all bauxite consumed in the United States was imported;
of the total consumed, more than 95% was converted to alumina. Of the total alumina used,
more than 90% went to primary aluminum smelters and the remainder went to non-metallurgical
uses. Annual alumina production capacity was 5.64 million tons, with four Bayer refineries
operating throughout the year. Domestic bauxite was used in the production of non-metallurgical
products, such as abrasives, chemicals, proppants, and refractories.
Thousand Metric Tons (Production and Consumption):
2009 2010 2011 2012 2013
Production, bauxite, mine NA NA NA NA NA
Imports of bauxite for
Consumption 7,770 9,310 10,200 11,000 10,400
Imports of alumina 1,860 1,720 2,160 1,790 2,170
Exports of bauxite 45 54 76 42 19
2009 2010 2011 2012 2013
Exports of alumina 946 1,520 1,660 1,680 1,450
Consumption, apparent,
bauxite and alumina (in
aluminum equivalents) 2,480 2,580 2,250 2,890 2,720
Price, bauxite, average
value U.S. imports (f.a.s.)
dollars per ton 28 27 30 28 28
Recycling: None.
Import Sources (2009–12):
Bauxite: Jamaica, 45%; Guinea, 24%; Brazil, 21%; Guyana, 4%; and other, 6%.
Alumina: Australia, 33%; Suriname, 31%; Brazil, 14%; Jamaica, 10%; and other, 12%.
Total: Jamaica, 30%; Brazil, 18%; Guinea, 18%; Australia, 11%; and other, 23%.
Obviously, bauxite and alumina is a critical resource for the United States because all of the
bauxite and alumina has to be imported. However, sources are relatively nearby in Jamaica and
South America.

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From USGS report on Aluminum production:
Domestic Production and Use: In 2015, three companies operated eight primary aluminum
smelters in six States, primarily east of the Mississippi River. One additional smelter remained
on standby throughout the year, and two other non-operating smelters were permanently shut
down during 2015. Based on published market prices, the value of primary aluminum production
was $3.11 billion. Aluminum consumption was centered in the East Central United States.
Transportation accounted for an estimated 39% of domestic consumption; in descending order
of consumption, the remainder was used in packaging, 20%; building, 14%; electrical, 9%;
consumer durables, 8%; machinery, 7%; and other, 3%.
2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
Production: Primary 1,986 2,070 1,946 1,710 1,600
Secondary (from old
scrap) 1,470 1,440 1,630 1,700 1,640
Imports for consumption
(crude and semi
manufactures) 3,710 3,760 4,160 4,290 4,700
Exports, total 3,420 3,480 3,390 3,230 3,020
Consumption, apparent 3,570 3,950 4,530 5,080 5,390
Price, ingot, average U.S.
2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
market (spot), cents per
pound 116.1 101.0 94.2 104.5 88.0
Net import reliance as
a percentage of
apparent consumption 3 11 21 33 40
Recycling: In 2015, aluminum recovered from purchased scrap in the United States was about
3.61 million tons, of which about 54% came from new (manufacturing) scrap and 46% from old
scrap (discarded aluminum products). Aluminum recovered from old scrap was equivalent to
about 30% of apparent consumption.
Import Sources (2011–14): Canada, 65%; Russia and United Arab Emirates, 6% each; and
other, 23%.
World Resources: Global resources of bauxite are estimated to be between 55 to 75 billion tons
and are sufficient to meet world demand for metal well into the future.

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Aluminum Recycling
From the Seattle Times, “Global glut of aluminum sinks once strong U.S. industry”, November 6,
2015:
For more than a decade, output has been moving to where it’s cheaper to produce: Russia, the
Middle East and China. A global glut has driven prices down by 27 percent in the past year,
rendering U.S. operations unprofitable and accelerating the pace of the industry’s demise…
That’s exactly what Jay Armstrong, the president of Trialco in Chicago Heights, Ill., is doing. The
company, which turns aluminum into finished manufactured products, now buys about 80
percent of the supplies it turns into car wheels from overseas. That’s up from 40 percent five
years ago, he said.
“It’s not the kind of business where we’re going to pay more and buy all American,” Armstrong
said. “It’s too competitive a business to do that.”
Alcoa announced last Monday it will idle smelters in Ferndale and Wenatchee in Washington
state with 800 workers and in Massena, N.Y., with 486 workers and partially curtail refining
capacity at its Point Comfort, Texas, facility by about 1.2 million tons and laying off 135
employees…
Century Aluminum has also shuttered U.S. production capacity as prices have dropped. The
Chicago-based company said it intends to curtail one of three potlines at its Sebree, Ky., smelter
by the end of the year because of a glut of the metal being exported from China. It has curtailed
60 percent of its facility in Hawesville, Ky., and will stop operations at its Mount Holly plant in
South Carolina by year-end if it can’t secure power to run the smelter…
While output has been moving abroad for some time, the game changer in the past year has
been the domination of China, where ballooning output has compounded a global surplus and
driven prices so low that Bank of America estimates more than 50 percent of producers globally
lose money. Smelters in the Asian country are still profitable, helped by higher physical
premiums in the region.
China probably will account for 55 percent of global aluminum production this year, up from 24
percent in 2005, according to Harbor research. The U.S. has gone in the opposite direction: from
2.5 million tons in 2005 to 1.6 million in 2015, it said.
Here is a case where China is dumping its product on the whole world so the aluminum U.S.
plants that used to export large amounts are no longer profitable. However, the U.S. could
become self-sufficient in aluminum if necessary with the existing plants and increased recycling.
Figure 2, “Aluminum Production in the United States”, shows the percentage contribution from
new scrap, old scrap, and primary ore since 1940.
From Recycling Today, “Light Metal, Heavy Changes”, by Brian Taylor, June 2015:

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Whether industry challengesor investment opportunities have been the cause, ownership
changes among producers of secondary aluminum alloys, castings, remelt and deox products
have been widespread in the previous decade and a half.
Among the 20th century company names no longer found on our list of recycled content
aluminum producers found on pages 100 and 101 are Wabash Alloys Alcan, Ormet Corp. and
Nichols Aluminum. Manyof the facilities once operated by these and other vanished companies
remain productive under different names, while in some cases facilities have been shuttered
and dismantled.
In testimony of the overall demandfor aluminum,RecyclingTodayhasbeenable to identify 126
facilities where sizable amounts of aluminum scrap are melted to create alloyed ingots,
extrusions or other types of aluminum.
Here is another example where the U.S. has to decide between lower prices for aluminum or
jobs, which applies to many things Americans buy. The aluminum products producers in the U.S.
will keep buying less expensive foreign supplies unless they are stopped by tariffs on aluminum
imports. Raising the price of aluminum in the United States would increase recycling efforts for
certain.
Antimony Production
From Wikipedia:
Antimony is a chemical element with symbol Sb (from Latin: stibium) and atomic number 51. A
lustrous gray metalloid, it is found in nature mainly as the sulfide mineral stibnite (Sb2S3)…
The largest applications for metallic antimony is an alloy with lead and tin and the lead antimony
plates in lead–acid batteries. Alloys of lead and tin with antimony have improved properties
for solders, bullets and plain bearings. Antimony compounds are prominent additives for chlorine
and bromine-containing fire retardants found in many commercial and domestic products. An
emerging application is the use of antimony in microelectronics.
From USGS report on Antimony:
Domestic Production and Use: In 2015, no marketable antimony was mined in the United
States. A mine in Nevada, which had the potential to produce antimony and had extracted about
1 metric ton of stibnite ore from 2013 to 2014, was on care-and-maintenance status in 2015 and
had no reported production. Primary antimony metal and oxide were produced by one company
in Montana using imported feedstock. Secondary antimony production was derived mostly from
antimonial lead recovered from spent lead-acid batteries. The estimated value of secondary
antimony produced in 2015, based on the average New York dealer price, was about $30
million. Recycling supplied about 17% of estimated domestic consumption, and the remainder
came from imports. The value of antimony consumption in 2015, based on the average New

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York dealer price, was about $185 million. The estimated domestic distribution of primary
antimony consumption was as follows: nonmetal products, including ceramics and glass and
rubber products, 36%; flame retardants, 34%; and metal products, including antimonial lead and
ammunition, 30%.
Metric Tons (Production and Consumption):
2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
Production:
Mine (recoverable
antimony) — — — — —
Smelter:
Primary ? ? ? ? ?
Secondary 2,860 3,050 4,400 4,230 4,000
Imports for consumption,
ores and
concentrates, oxide,
and metal 23,500 22,600 24,700 24,200 23,600
Exports of metal, alloys,
oxide,
and waste and scrap 4,170 4,710 3,980 3,240 3,100
Consumption, apparent 22,300 21,000 25,100 25,200 24,500
Price, metal, average,
cents per pound 650 565 463 425 344
Employment, plant,
number (yearend) 24 24 24 27 27
Net import reliance as a
percentage of
Recycling: The bulk of secondary antimony is recovered at secondary lead smelters as
antimonial lead, most of which was generated by, and then consumed by, the lead-acid battery
industry.
Metal: China, 68%; India, 14%; Mexico, 4%; and other, 14%.
Ore and concentrate: Italy, 64%; China, 20%; India, 12%; and other, 4%.
Oxide: China, 63%; Bolivia, 9%; Belgium, 8%; Thailand, 8%; Mexico, 6%; and other, 6%.
Total: China, 63%; Bolivia, 8%; Belgium, 7%; Thailand, 6%; and other, 16%.

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Antimony Recycling
The bulk of secondary antimony is recovered at secondary lead smelters as antimonial lead,
most of which was generated by, and then consumed by, the lead-acid battery industry.
United States Antimony Corp. is the only antimony compound smelter in the U.S., in Thompson
Falls, Montana. The company has other operations in Mexico. They produce antimony, silver,
gold, and zeolite products, and reportedly can recover lead, arsenic, mercury, bismuth, and
selenium. Antimony tri-sulfide and antimony oxide are the two main products produced. Most of
the ore is imported. A large quantity of antimony oxide is imported from China for use in various
applications.
The only U.S. mine for the predominant ore, stibnite, is near Reno, Nevada. From
firstlibertypower.com:
First Liberty Power holds a 50% net interest in an Antimony (Stibnite) mining development &
refining project, located approximately 1 hour north-east of Reno, Nevada named “Fencemaker”.
This mine was previously worked in the 1940’s and again in the 1980’s, on a manual basis, with
consistently high grades (10 to 25% Sb) along the exposed vein.
On October 14, 2013 the first Fencemaker mine blast was detonated. Since then, through to
February 2014, the Mining Team extracted over 750 tons of stibnite ore for processing.
The mined ore was staged just outside the mine adit and trucked 40 miles to a property in
Lovelock, NV pending further processing. Our plan is to seek out additional permits for
the concentration of the ore, following by refining at an external facility.
Antimony metal is extracted primarily from stibnite ore and is used as a hardening alloy for lead,
especially storage batteries and cable sheaths, and also used in bearing metal, type metal,
solder, collapsible tubes and foil, sheet and pipes, and semiconductor technology.
Stibnite is used for metal antifriction alloys, metal type, shot, batteries, and in the manufacture of
fireworks. Antimony salts are used in the rubber and textile industries, in medicine, and
glassmaking.
In June 2014, First Liberty secured a 50% interest in five additional prospective antimony
properties (direct ownership of unpatented claims) in Pershing County, Nevada.
Looks like this company wants to increase the U.S. mining capacity of stibnite.
Arsenic Production
From Wikipedia:
Arsenic is a chemical element with symbol As and atomic number 33. Arsenic occurs in
many minerals, usually in combination with sulfur and metals, but also as a pure

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elemental crystal. Arsenic is a metalloid. It has various allotropes, but only the gray form is
important to industry.
The primary use of metallic arsenic is in alloys of lead (for example, in car
batteries and ammunition). Arsenic is a common n-type dopant in semiconductor electronic
devices, and the optoelectronic compound gallium arsenide is the second most commonly used
semiconductor after doped silicon. Arsenic and its compounds, especially the trioxide, are used
in the production of pesticides, treated wood products, herbicides, and insecticides. These
applications are declining, however.
From USGS report on Arsenic:
Domestic Production and Use: Arsenic trioxide and primary arsenic metal have not been
produced in the United States since 1985. However, limited quantities of arsenic metal have
been recovered from gallium-arsenide (GaAs) semiconductor scrap. The principal use for
arsenic trioxide was for the production of arsenic acid used in the formulation of chromated
copper arsenide (CCA) preservatives for the pressure treating of lumber used primarily in
nonresidential applications. Three companies produced CCA preservatives in the United States
in 2015. Ammunition used by the U.S. military was hardened by the addition of less than 1%
arsenic metal, and the grids in lead-acid storage batteries were strengthened by the addition of
arsenic metal. Arsenic metal was also used as an antifriction additive for bearings, to harden
lead shot, and in clip-on wheel weights. Arsenic compounds were used in herbicides and
insecticides. High-purity arsenic (99.9999%) was used by the electronics industry for GaAs
semiconductors that are used for solar cells, space research, and telecommunications. Arsenic
also was used for germanium-arsenide-selenide specialty optical materials. Indium-gallium-
arsenide was used for short-wave infrared technology. The value of arsenic compounds and
metal imported domestically in 2015 was estimated to be about $5.6 million.
2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
Imports for consumption:
Arsenic 628 883 514 688 600
Compounds 4,990 5,740 6,290 5,260 6,200
Exports, arsenic 1 705 439 1,630 2,950 1,900
Consumption, estimated 5,620 6,620 6,810 5,940 6,800
Value, cents per pound,
average
Arsenic (China) 74 75 72 75 80
Trioxide (Morocco) 22 24 27 30 29
a percentage of
estimated consumption 100 100 100 100 100

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Recycling: Arsenic metal was recycled from GaAs semiconductor manufacturing. Arsenic
contained in the process water at wood treatment plants where CCA was used was also
recycled. Although electronic circuit boards, relays, and switches may contain arsenic, no
arsenic was recovered from them during recycling to recover other contained metals. No arsenic
was recovered domestically from arsenic-containing residues and dusts generated at nonferrous
smelters in the United States.
Arsenic: China, 89%; Japan, 9%; and other, 2%.
Arsenic trioxide: Morocco, 58%; China (including Hong Kong), 32%; Belgium, 10%; and other,
less than 1%.
World Resources: Arsenic may be obtained from copper, gold, and lead smelter flue dust as
well as from roasting arsenopyrite, the most abundant ore mineral of arsenic. Arsenic has been
recovered from realgar and orpiment in China, Peru, and the Philippines; has been recovered
from copper-gold ores in Chile; and was associated with gold occurrences in Canada. Orpiment
and realgar from gold mines in Sichuan Province, China, were stockpiled for later recovery of
arsenic. Arsenic also may be recovered from enargite, a copper mineral. Global resources of
copper and lead contain approximately 11 million tons of arsenic.
Arsenic Recycle
The semiconductor industry is the only main user of arsenic compounds that can’t be replaced. I
doubt if anyone else will attempt at recycling arsenic.
Barium Production
From Wikipedia:
Barium is a chemical element with symbol Ba and atomic number 56. It is the fifth element in
Group 2, a soft silvery metallic alkaline earth metal. Because of its high chemical reactivity,
barium is never found in nature as a free element. Its hydroxide, known in pre-modern history
as baryta, does not occur as a mineral, but can be prepared by heating barium carbonate.
The most common naturally occurring minerals of barium are barite (barium sulfate, BaSO4)
and witherite (barium carbonate, BaCO3), both insoluble in water. The barium name originates
from the alchemical derivative "baryta", from Greek βαρύς (barys), meaning "heavy." Baric is the
adjective form of barium. Barium was identified as a new element in 1774, but not reduced to a
metal until 1808 with the advent of electrolysis.
From USGS report on Barium (Barite):

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Domestic Production and Use: In 2014, about 720,000 tons of crude barite was sold or used for
grinding. The value of the ground barite was estimated to be $90 million. Most of the production
came from four mines in Nevada; a significantly smaller sales volume came from a single mine
in Georgia. An estimated 3.42 million tons of barite (from domestic production and imports) was
sold by crushers and grinders operating in eight States. Nearly 95% of the barite sold in the
United States was used as a weighting agent in fluids used in the drilling of oil and natural gas
wells. The majority of Nevada crude barite was ground in Nevada and then sold primarily to
exploration companies drilling in Colorado, New Mexico, North Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming.
Crude barite was shipped to a Canadian grinding mill in Lethbridge, Alberta, which supplied the
western Canada drilling mud market. The barite imported to Louisiana and Texas mostly went to
offshore drilling operations in the Gulf of Mexico and to onshore drilling operations in Louisiana,
Oklahoma, and Texas. Barite also is used as a filler, extender, or weighting agent in products
such as paints, plastics, and rubber. Some specific applications include use in automobile brake
and clutch pads, automobile paint primer for metal protection and gloss, and to add weight to
rubber mudflaps on trucks and to the cement jacket around underwater petroleum pipelines. In
the metal-casting industry, barite is part of the mold-release compounds. Because barite
significantly blocks x-ray and gamma-ray emissions, it is used as aggregate in high-density
concrete for radiation shielding around x-ray units in hospitals, nuclear powerplants, and
university nuclear research facilities. Ultrapure barite consumed as liquid is used as a contrast
medium in medical x-ray examinations.
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014
Sold or used, mine 662 710 666 700 720
Imports for consumption 2,110 2,320 2,920 2,240 2,900
Exports 109 98 151 200 200
Consumption, apparent
(crude and ground) 2,660 2,930 3,430 2,740 3,420
Consumption (ground
and crushed) 2,570 2,910 3,310 2,700 3,400
Estimated price, average
value, dollars per ton,
f.o.b. mine 83 94 107 116 125
Employment, mine and
mill, number 379 461 554 624 625
percentage of apparent
consumption 75 76 81 74 79
Recycling: None.
Import Sources (2010–13): China, 80%; India, 11%; Morocco, 4%; Mexico, 3%; and other, 2%

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World Resources: In the United States, identified resources of barite are estimated to be 150
million tons, and undiscovered resources include an additional 150 million tons. The world’s
barite resources in all categories are about 2 billion tons, but only about 740 million tons is
identified resources.
Barium Recycling
From atsr.cdc.gov:
In 2005, the major producer of barite in the United States was from mines in Nevada.
Significantly smaller amounts were produced from a single mine in Georgia. Total U.S.
production for 2004 was 532,000 metric tons, a figure that represented 7.3% of world production.
This production figure is 14% higher than for 2003. In 2004, 24 grinding plants within the United
States produced 2,440,000 metric tons of ground or crushed (processed) barite ore. Fourteen
facilities, 6 in Louisiana and 8 in Texas, produced American Petroleum Institute (API)-grade
barite in 2004. These stand-alone grinding plants received barite from China and India for
grinding to API specifications for the oil and gas drilling markets. Of the total production of
ground and crushed barite ore in 2004, 94% (2,300,000 metric tons) was used in well drilling
operations. Louisiana and Texas were the major U.S. consumers of processed barite ore
(1,803,000 metric tons); much of this consumption was driven by exploration for natural gas…
The remaining 6% (142,000 metric tons) was used as filler and extenders and in the
manufacture of glass and barium chemicals, such as barium sulfide (USGS 2004, 2006).
I doubt any economical barium recycling can ever be done so it reliance on Chinese supplies
unless substitutes can be found in the oil drilling and x-ray uses.
Beryllium Production
From Wikipedia:
Beryllium is a chemical element with symbol Be and atomic number 4. It is a relatively rare
element in the universe, usually occurring as a product of the spallation of larger atomic nuclei
that have collided with cosmic rays. Within the cores of stars beryllium is depleted as it is fused
and creates larger elements. It is a divalent element which occurs naturally only in combination
with other elements in minerals. Notable gemstones which contain beryllium
include beryl (aquamarine, emerald) and chrysoberyl. As a free element it is a steel-gray, strong,
lightweight and brittle alkaline earth metal.
Beryllium improves many physical properties when added as an alloying element
to aluminium, copper (notably the alloy beryllium copper), iron and nickel. Beryllium does not
form oxides until it reaches very high temperatures. Tools made of beryllium copper alloys are
strong and hard and do not create sparks when they strike a steel surface. In structural
applications, the combination of high flexural rigidity, thermal stability, thermal conductivity and
low density (1.85 times that of water) make beryllium metal a desirable aerospace material for

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aircraft components, missiles, spacecraft, and satellites. Because of its low density and atomic
mass, beryllium is relatively transparent to X-rays and other forms of ionizing radiation;
therefore, it is the most common window material for X-ray equipment and components
of particle detectors. The high thermal conductivities of beryllium and beryllium oxide have led to
their use in thermal management applications.
From USGS report on Beryllium:
Domestic Production and Use: One company in Utah mined bertrandite ore and converted it,
along with imported beryl, into beryllium hydroxide. Some of the beryllium hydroxide was
shipped to the company’s plant in Ohio, where it was converted into metal, oxide, and
downstream beryllium-copper master alloy—some of which was sold. Estimated beryllium
consumption of 310 tons was valued at about $158 million, based on the estimated unit value for
beryllium in imported beryllium-copper master alloy. Based on value-added sales revenues,
approximately 20% of beryllium products were used in industrial components, 18% in consumer
electronics, 16% in automotive electronics, 8% each in energy applications and
telecommunications infrastructure, 6% in defense applications, 2% in medical applications, and
22% in other applications. Beryllium alloy strip and bulk products, the most common forms of
processed beryllium, were used in all application areas. The majority of beryllium metal and
beryllium composite products were used in defense and scientific applications.
2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
Production, mine
shipments 235 225 235 270 275
Imports for consumption 92 100 57 68 73
Exports 21 55 35 26 33
Government stockpile
releases 22 >0.5 10 1 >0.5
Consumption:
Reported, ore 250 220 250 280 285
Apparent 333 265 262 318 310
Unit value, annual
average, beryllium-copper
master alloy, dollars per
pound contained
beryllium 203 204 208 215 231
Recycling: Beryllium was recovered from new scrap generated during the manufacture of
beryllium products and from old scrap. Detailed data on the quantities of beryllium recycled are
not available but may account for as much as 20% to 25% of total beryllium consumption. The

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leading U.S. beryllium producer established a comprehensive recycling program for all of its
beryllium products, recovering approximately 40% of its new and old beryllium alloy scrap.
Beryllium manufactured from recycled sources requires only 20% of the energy as that of
beryllium manufactured from primary sources.
Import Sources (2011–14): Kazakhstan, 56%; China, 8%; Nigeria, 6%; United Kingdom, 6%;
and other, 24%.
World Resources: World identified resources of beryllium have been estimated to be more than
80,000 tons. About 65% of these resources are in nonpegmatite deposits in the United States;
the Gold Hill and Spor Mountain areas in Utah and the Seward Peninsula in Alaska account for
most of the total.
Beryllium Recycling
From Investor Intel, “Where the USA Dominates”, Christopher Ecclestone, July 2, 2014:
The US is forecast to remain the dominant market player in both consumption and production.
The United States is the world’s leading source of beryllium. The Spor Mountain mine in Utah
produced more than 85% of the 230 tpa of beryllium mined worldwide…
Three countries (China, Kazakhstan, and the United States) process beryllium ore. In 2005, the
U.S. Department of Defense began a partnership with Materion to build a new processing facility
in Ohio to produce high-purity beryllium metal. The processing facility was completed in 2011,
and up to two-thirds of its output was to be allocated for defense and other government-related
end uses.
The names to conjure with in the mining and processing of Beryllium are Materion (Ohio/Utah),
IBC Advanced Alloys Corp. (Canada but plants in US), Belmont Metals (New York), Applied
Materials, NGK Metals Corporation (Tennessee), American Beryllia (New Jersey), Esmeralda de
Conquista Ltda (in Brazil), Ningxia Orient Tantalum Industry Co (China), Fuyun Hengsheng
Beryllium Industry Co (China), and Grizzly Mining Limited (a Zambian gem miner). Some of
these are not much more though than aggregators of artisanal mining output from their region.
Materion (MTRN)
The 800-lb gorilla in the Beryllium space (not to mention being the “anointed” of the Pentagon) is
Materion, the specialty metals processor which also owns the aforementioned Spor Mountain
Mine. As such it is the world’s only integrated “mine-to-mill” supplier of beryllium-based products.
The company used to be known more prosaically as Brush-Wellman (before that the Brush
Beryllium Company).
The strategic importance of Beryllium is evidenced by some of the high tech output of Materion
as evidenced by sophisticated thin film coatings for hard disk drives, specialty inorganic

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chemicals for solar energy panels, bio-compatible materials for implantable medical devices,
specialty alloys for miniature consumer electronics components, optical filters for thermal
imaging, critical components for infrared sensing technology and special materials for LEDs. It’s
worth noting that Materion is a supplier to the Defense Logistic Agency (DLA) stockpile.
Texas Rare Earths – Beryllium Plug & Play
Texas Rare Earths (OTCQX: TRER) is the owner of the Round Top Mine in Texas which is a
wunder-mine that is all things to all investors. It has Rare Earths, Flourite, Lithium and Uranium.
However it was originally developed as a Beryllium deposit. Most of the work on this score was
done in the past by Cabot Corp and Cyprus Minerals.
The dominance of the US in Beryllium is a good thing. This could be further accentuated by
development of a second mine, Round Top, owned by TRER. Maybe life could be breathed back
into the Bommer Mine. The US is clearly the axe in this metal but still remains dependent upon
imports for too much of its industrial conversion.
The U.S. could easily become self-sufficient in this metal mining and production.
Bismuth Production
From Wikipedia:
Bismuth is a chemical element with the symbol Bi and the atomic number 83. Bismuth,
a pentavalent post-transition metal and one of the pnictogens, chemically resembles its lighter
homologs arsenic and antimony. Elemental bismuth may occur naturally, although its sulfide and
oxide form important commercial ores. The free element is 86% as dense as lead. It is a brittle
metal with a silvery white color when freshly produced but is often seen in air with a pink tinge
owing to surface oxidation. Bismuth is the most naturally diamagnetic element, and has one of
the lowest values of thermal conductivity among metals…
Bismuth compounds account for about half the production of bismuth. They are used in
cosmetics, pigments, and a few pharmaceuticals, notably bismuth subsalicylate, used to treat
diarrhea. Bismuth's unusual propensity to expand upon freezing is responsible for some of its
uses, such as in casting of printing type. Bismuth has unusually low toxicity for a heavy
metal. As the toxicity of lead has become more apparent in recent years, there is an increasing
use of bismuth alloys (presently about a third of bismuth production) as a replacement for lead.
From USGS report on Bismuth:
Domestic Production and Use: The United States ceased production of primary refined bismuth
in 1997 and is highly import dependent for its supply. Some domestic firms recycle small
quantities of bismuth. Bismuth is contained in some lead ores mined domestically, but the last
domestic primary lead smelter closed at yearend 2013, and all lead concentrates now are
exported for smelting. In 2014, the value of reported consumption of bismuth was approximately

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$23 million. About two-thirds of domestic bismuth consumption was for chemicals used in
cosmetic, industrial, laboratory, and pharmaceutical applications. Bismuth use in
pharmaceuticals included bismuth salicylate (the active ingredient in over-the-counter stomach
remedies) and other compounds used to treat burns, intestinal disorders, and stomach ulcers.
Bismuth also is used in the manufacture of ceramic glazes, crystal ware, and pearlescent
pigments. Bismuth has a wide variety of metallurgical applications, including use as a nontoxic
replacement for lead in brass, free machining steels, and solders, and as an additive to enhance
metallurgical quality in the foundry industry. The Safe Drinking Water Act Amendment of 1996,
which required that all new and repaired fixtures and pipes for potable water supply be lead free
after August 1998, opened a wider market for bismuth as a metallurgical additive to lead-free
pipe fittings, fixtures, and water meters. Bismuth is used as a triggering mechanism for fire
sprinklers and in holding devices for grinding optical lenses, and bismuth-tellurium oxide alloy
film paste is used in the manufacture of semiconductor devices.
2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
Production: Refinery — — — — ––
Secondary (old scrap) 80 80 80 80 80
Imports for consumption,
metal 1,750 1,700 1,710 2,270 2,200
Exports, metal, alloys,
and scrap 628 764 816 567 600
Consumption: Reported 696 647 774 727 900
Apparent 1,120 940 978 1,504 1,610
Price, average, domestic
dealer, dollars per pound 11.47 10.10 8.71 11.14 7.50
Recycling: Bismuth-containing new and old alloy scrap was recycled and thought to compose
less than 10% of U.S. bismuth consumption, or about 80 tons.
Import Sources (2011–14): China, 64%; Belgium, 26%; Peru, 3%; United Kingdom, 2%; and
other, 5%.
World Resources: Bismuth, at an estimated 8 parts per billion by weight, ranks 69th in elemental
abundance in the Earth’s crust and is about twice as abundant as gold. World reserves of
bismuth are usually based on bismuth content of lead resources because bismuth production is
most often a byproduct of processing lead ores. In China and Vietnam, bismuth production is a
byproduct or coproduct of tungsten and other metal ore processing. Bismuth minerals rarely
occur in sufficient quantities to be mined as principal products; the Tasna Mine in Bolivia and a
mine in China are the only mines that produced bismuth from bismuth ore.

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Bismuth Recycling:
From Terra Glitch website:
Whereas bismuth is most available today as a byproduct, its sustainability is more dependent on
recycling. Bismuth is mostly a byproduct of lead smelting, along with silver, zinc, antimony, and
other metals, and also of tungsten production, along with molybdenum and tin, and also of
copper production. Recycling bismuth is difficult in many of its end uses, primarily because of
scattering.
Probably the easiest to recycle would be bismuth-containing fusible alloys in the form of larger
objects, then larger soldered objects. Half of the world’s solder consumption is in electronics
(i.e., circuit boards). As the soldered objects get smaller or contain little solder or little bismuth,
the recovery gets progressively more difficult and less economic, although solder with a higher
silver content will be more worthwhile recovering. Next in recycling feasibility would be sizeable
catalysts with a fair bismuth content, perhaps as bismuth phosphomolybdate, and then bismuth
used in galvanizing and as a free-machining metallurgical additive.
Improvement in Bismuth recycling is necessary, but will it ever be cost effective? I doubt it.
However, depending on China’s mining activity, the world recoverable supply could be quickly
exhausted. From “Bismuth Depletion Including Recycling”, L. David Roper, July 2, 2016:
The crossover point at year ~2014 when the amount extracted is equal to the amount left to be
extracted is shown here:

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Boron Production
From Wikipedia:
Boron is a chemical element with symbol B and atomic number 5. Produced entirely by cosmic
ray spallation and supernovae and not by stellar nucleosynthesis, it is a low-abundance element
in the Solar system and in the Earth's crust. Boron is concentrated on Earth by the water-
solubility of its more common naturally occurring compounds, the borate minerals. These are
mined industrially as evaporites, such as borax and kernite. The largest known boron deposits
are in Turkey, the largest producer of boron minerals.
Elemental boron is a metalloid that is found in small amounts in meteoroids but chemically
uncombined boron is not otherwise found naturally on Earth. Industrially, very pure boron is
produced with difficulty because of refractory contamination by carbon or other elements.
Several allotropes of boron exist: amorphous boron is a brown powder; crystalline boron is
silvery to black, extremely hard (about 9.5 on the Mohs scale), and a poor electrical conductor at
room temperature. The primary use of elemental boron is as boron filaments with applications
similar to carbon fibers in some high-strength materials.
Boron is primarily used in chemical compounds. About half of all consumption globally, boron is
used as an additive in glass fibers of boron-containing fiberglass for insulation and structural
materials. The next leading use is in polymers and ceramics in high-strength, lightweight
structural and refractory materials. Borosilicate glass is desired for its greater strength and
thermal shock resistance than ordinary soda lime glass. Boron compounds are used
as fertilizers in agriculture and in sodium perborate bleaches. A small amount of boron is used
as a dopant in semiconductors, and reagent intermediates in the synthesis of organic fine
chemicals. A few boron-containing organic pharmaceuticals are used or are in study. Natural
boron is composed of two stable isotopes, one of which (boron-10) has a number of uses as a
neutron-capturing agent.
From USGS report on Boron:
Domestic Production and Use: Two companies in southern California produced borates in 2015,
and most of the boron products consumed in the United States were manufactured domestically.
U.S. boron production and consumption data were withheld to avoid disclosing company
proprietary data. The leading boron producer mined borate ores containing kernite, tincal, and
ulexite by open pit methods and operated associated compound plants. The kernite was used
for boric acid production, tincal was used as a feedstock for sodium borate production, and
ulexite was used as a primary ingredient in the manufacture of a variety of specialty glasses and
ceramics. A second company produced borates from brines extracted through solution mining
techniques. Boron minerals and chemicals were principally consumed in the North Central and
the Eastern United States. In 2015, the glass and ceramics industries remained the leading
domestic users of boron products, accounting for an estimated 80% of total borates

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consumption. Boron also was used as a component in abrasives, cleaning products,
insecticides, insulation, and in the production of semiconductors.
2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
Production ? ? ? ? ?
Refined borax 69 86 127 152 164
Boric acid 56 55 53 57 60
Colemanite — 24 38 45 42
Ulexite — 1 — 34 74
2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
Exports:
Boric acid 235 190 232 225 161
Refined borax 492 457 489 584 532
Consumption, apparent ? ? ? ? ?
Price, average value of
mineral imports at port
of exportation, dollars
per ton 553 510 433 372 400
Employment, number 1,180 1,180 1,180 1,180 1,180
Recycling: Insignificant.
Import Sources (2011–14): Borates: Turkey, 80%; Bolivia, 8%; China, 3%; Argentina, 3%; and
other, 6%.
World Resources: Deposits of borates are associated with volcanic activity and arid climates,
with the largest economically viable deposits located in the Mojave Desert of the United States,
the Alpide belt in southern Asia, and the Andean belt of South America. U.S. deposits consist
primarily of tincal, kernite, and borates contained in brines, and to a lesser extent ulexite and
colemanite. About 70% of all deposits in Turkey are colemanite. Small deposits are being mined
in South America. At current levels of consumption, world resources are adequate for the
foreseeable future.
The U.S. is a significant net exporter of refined borax and boric acid, and China and other Asian
countries are the largest consumers. I don’t know the reason for the unknown production and
consumption numbers in USGS 2016 report. It could have something to do with U.S. Borax and
Chemical Corp. is the only U.S. company (owned by the British mining company Rio Tinto)
which mines borates, and they are in competition with American Borate Co. in Virginia, who

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represents Turkey in North America. Probably not. Turkey is the other country with major
sources of borates.
Boron Recycling:
I doubt if boron will ever be recycled in any significant quantity.
Cadmium Production
From Wikipedia:
Cadmium is a chemical element with symbol Cd and atomic number 48. This soft, bluish-white
metal is chemically similar to the two other stable metals in group 12, zinc and mercury. Like
zinc, it demonstrates oxidation state +2 in most of its compounds, and like mercury, it has a
lower melting point than other transition metals. Cadmium and its congeners are not always
considered transition metals, in that they do not have partly filled d or f electron shells in the
elemental or common oxidation states. The average concentration of cadmium in Earth's crust is
between 0.1 and 0.5 parts per million (ppm). It was discovered in 1817 simultaneously
by Stromeyer and Hermann, both in Germany, as an impurity in zinc carbonate.
Cadmium occurs as a minor component in most zinc ores and is a byproduct of zinc production.
Cadmium was used for a long time as a corrosion-resistant plating on steel, and cadmium
compounds are used as red, orange and yellow pigments, to color glass, and to stabilize plastic.
Cadmium use is generally decreasing because it is toxic (it is specifically listed in the
European Restriction of Hazardous Substances) and nickel-cadmium batteries have been
replaced with nickel-metal hydride and lithium-ion batteries. One of its few new uses is cadmium
telluride solar panels.
From USGS report on Cadmium:
Domestic Production and Use: Two companies in the United States produced refined cadmium
in 2015. One company, operating in Tennessee, recovered primary refined cadmium as a
byproduct of zinc leaching from roasted sulfide concentrates. The other company, operating in
Ohio, recovered secondary cadmium metal from spent nickel cadmium (NiCd) batteries and
other cadmium-bearing scrap. Domestic production and consumption of cadmium from 2011 to
2015 were withheld to avoid disclosing company proprietary data. Cadmium metal and
compounds are mainly consumed for alloys, coatings, NiCd batteries, pigments, and plastic
stabilizers.

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2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
Production, refined ? ? ? ? ?
Unwrought cadmium
and powders 201 170 284 133 270
Wrought cadmium and
other articles
(gross weight) 9 21 104 6 20
Cadmium waste and
2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
scrap (gross weight) >0.5 1 >0.5 — 80
Exports:
Unwrought cadmium
and powders 63 253 131 198 290
Wrought cadmium and
other articles
(gross weight) 204 378 266 72 120
Cadmium waste and
scrap (gross weight) 5 — 20 — —
Consumption of metal,
apparent ? ? ? ? ?
Price, metal, annual
average, dollars per
kilogram 2.76 2.03 1.92 1.94 1.05
2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
a percentage of <25% 0 <25% 0 0
apparent consumption
Recycling: Secondary cadmium is mainly recovered from spent consumer and industrial NiCd
batteries. Other waste and scrap from which cadmium can be recovered includes copper-
cadmium alloy scrap, some complex nonferrous alloy scrap, and cadmium-containing dust from
electric arc furnaces (EAF). The amount of cadmium recovered from secondary sources in 2015
was withheld to avoid disclosing company proprietary data
Import Sources (2011–14): Canada, 40%; Australia, 17%; China, 11%; Mexico, 10%; and other,
22%.
The U.S. has been a net exporter of cadmium in three out of the five years from 2011 to 2015.

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Cadmium Recycling
From Nyrstar website:
The Clarksville zinc refinery is located four kilometers southwest of Clarksville, Tennessee,
beside the Cumberland River. The primary zinc producer in the U.S and also produces cadmium
metal, suphuric acid, copper sulphate, and intermediate copper cementate, synthetic gypsum
and germanium concentrate.
The Clarksville smelter was specifically designed to recover zinc from the high zinc content, low
impurity Tennessee Valley zinc concentrates produced by the Tennessee mines.
So that is the Tennessee company the USGS report refers to. It is owned by a Belgium
company, Nyrstar.
From Retriev Technologies website:
Anaheim, California – TOXCO Inc., is pleased to announce that it has been awarded 9.5 million
dollars from the Department of Energy to expand their current battery recycling operations in
Lancaster, Ohio. Toxco plans to build and operate an advanced lithium battery recycling facility
at their existing Lancaster, Ohio site. The new plant will be built to support the battery recycling
infrastructure that will be needed with the growth of hybrid and electric vehicles in the United
States all of which use large format rechargeable batteries. “Toxco is excited to have been
chosen by the Department of Energy” says Todd Coy, Executive Vice President of Kinsbursky
Brothers, Inc., Toxco’s parent company. “As the U.S. hybrid vehicle market continues to grow,
Toxco will provide end of life management and recycling of these advanced batteries in a safe
and environmentally sound manner.”
“This new plant will bring in more employment for the Lancaster area, as well as allow us to
continue to recover renewable resources, such as Nickel and Cobalt, for use in the
manufacturing of new batteries for the U.S. market.” says Ed Green, VP of Ohio operations for
Toxco. Green continued, “The new plant represents growth for our group of companies” and
noted “Toxco’s Trail, BC facility will continue to provide lithium battery recycling services to their
existing customers; this plant will focus on the emerging battery market.”
Toxco is currently the only facility in North America with the capability to recycle both primary
and secondary lithium batteries. Toxco’s existing lithium battery recycling operation is located in
Trail, British Columbia. Additionally, Toxco manages two battery recycling operations in Ohio.
The Lancaster, Ohio facility currently processes large format lead acid batteries, as well as
nickel metal hydride batteries used in the current population of hybrid and electric vehicles. This
facility is also only one of two technologies in North America that can recycle nickel cadmium
batteries, which is a common consumer type of rechargeable battery. The recovery process
used in Lancaster for the nickel cadmium batteries is deemed to be a “Best Demonstrated
Available Technology” per US EPA.

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The company changed its name to Retriev Technologies with headquarters in Anaheim,
California. They have another recycling facility in Trail, British Colombia, because that is where
Teck, Canada’s largest diversified resource company, has its zinc smelter.
A zinc recycling operation is owned by Horsehead Corp. based in Pittsburg, Pa. They are an
American owned company with an operation in North Carolina, after emerging from Chapter 11,
producing refined zinc. They also recycle nickel, chromium, iron, molybdenum, and cadmium.
So cadmium recycling seems to be in good shape.
Calcium Production
Calcium is considered to be a metal, but it is abundant all over the world so I won’t waste any
space on this.
Chromium Production
From Geology.com, September, 2010:
Chromium, a steely-gray, lustrous, hard metal that takes a high polish and has a high melting
point, is a silvery white, hard, and bright metal plating on steel and other material. Commonly
known as chrome, it is one of the most important and indispensable industrial metals because of
its hardness and resistance to corrosion. But it is used for more than the production of stainless
steel and nonferrous alloys; it is also used to create pigments and chemicals used to process
leather…
Chromite, the only ore of chromium, was first discovered in the United States sometime about
1808 on the farm of Isaac Tyson, Jr., just north of Baltimore, Md. Scattered deposits of
chromium minerals in an area of northeastern Maryland and southeastern Pennsylvania were
the source of nearly all of the chromium products in the world between 1828 and 1850.
Currently, the only domestic commercial chromium supply source is from recycling, although the
United States does have small chromite resources, primarily in Oregon. The Stillwater complex
of Montana also hosts chromite resources associated with platinum and nickel resources.
How Do We Use Chromium?
Chromium is critical in the manufacturing of stainless steel. Most stainless steel contains about
18 percent chromium; it is what hardens and toughens steel and increases its resistance to
corrosion, especially at high temperatures. Because stainless steel does not rust and is easily
sterilized, it is a part of many items we use in our daily lives. Some of the most recognizable of
these items include kitchen appliances, food processing equipment, and medical and dental
tools.
Many of the decorations on automobiles, such as ornaments, trim, and hubcaps, are chromium
plated. Chromium in super alloys (high-performance alloys) permits jet engines to operate in a

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high-temperature, high-stress, chemically oxidizing environment. On U.S. roadways, chromium
pigments are used to make the yellow lines that indicate traffic lanes. Chromium-containing
pigments find their way into a variety of beauty products. Chromite is used in high-temperature
applications, such as blast furnaces and molds for firing bricks, because it retains strength at
high temperature.
Where Does Chromium Come From?
Chromite, an oxide of iron, magnesium, aluminum, and chromium, is the only ore mineral of
chromium. In nature, chromite deposits are generally of two major types: stratiform (layered) and
podiform (pod shaped). Both types are associated with ultramafic igneous rocks. The world's
largest stratiform chromite deposits are found in South Africa, in what is known as the Bushveld
complex. This is a layered igneous intrusion containing more than 11 billion metric tons of
chromite resources. Podiform deposits are found in layered igneous sequences that developed
in oceanic crust below the sea floor. We can now access these resources where parts of the
ocean floor have been pushed over continental rocks by tectonic forces. In the United States,
podiform deposits are scattered along the Pacific Coast from the Kenai Peninsula in southern
Alaska to southern California and along the Appalachian Mountains from northern Vermont to
Georgia.
Chromium: Worldwide Supply and Demand
The world's production (supply) and consumption (demand) of chromium have been influenced
by the global market, as demand for mineral commodities, including chromium, has increased.
Chromium is traded on the world market in the form of ferrochromium, an iron-chromium alloy.
The price of ferrochromium reached historically high levels in 2008 and then declined in 2009
with a weakening world economy. During the same time period, China's role as a chromium
consumer has grown with its expanding stainless steel industry.
Ferrochromium production is an electrical energy-intensive process. Much of the electrical power
currently produced is coal based, a carbon dioxide gas-producing process that is under
consideration for regulation because of its impact on climate. These factors suggest that the
electrical energy cost of ferrochromium production will rise in the future
Ensure Future Chromium Supplies
World chromium reserves, mining capacity, and ferrochromium production capacity are largely
concentrated in the Eastern Hemisphere. Because there is no viable substitute for chromium in
the production of stainless steel and because the United States has small chromium resources,
there has been concern about domestic supply during every national military emergency since
World War I. In recognition of the vulnerability of lengthy supply routes during military
emergencies, chromium (in various forms, including chromite ore, chromium Ferro alloys, and

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chromium metal) has been held in the National Defense Stockpile since before World War II.
Since 1991, however, changes in national security considerations have resulted in reduced
stockpile goals, and inventories are being sold. At the current rate, it is estimated that these
stockpiles will be exhausted by 2015. In 2009, recycled chromium from stainless steel scrap
accounted for 61 percent of U.S. chromium apparent consumption, making recycled material the
only domestic commercial chromium supply source.
From USGS report on chromium production:
Domestic Production and Use: In 2015, the United States was expected to consume about 5%
of world chromite ore production in various forms of imported materials, such as chromite ore,
chromium chemicals, chromium ferroalloys, chromium metal, and stainless steel. One U.S.
company mined chromite ore in Oregon from which it produced foundry sand. Imported chromite
ore was consumed by one chemical firm to produce chromium chemicals. One company
produced chromium metal. Stainless-steel and heat-resisting-steel producers were the leading
consumers of ferrochromium. Stainless steels and super alloys require chromium. The value of
chromium material consumption in 2014 was $971 million as measured by the value of net
imports, excluding stainless steel, and was expected to be about $1 billion in 2015.
2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
Production:
Mine — NA NA NA NA
Recycling 147 146 150 157 162
Exports 232 234 235 250 381
releases 4 4 10 15 15
Consumption:
Reported (includes
recycling) 400 401 402 418 418
Apparent (includes
recycling) 450 471 400 558 471
Unit value, average
annual import (dollars
per ton):
Chromite ore (gross
quantity) 355 392 310 243 214
Ferrochromium
(chromium content) 2,603 2,362 2,156 2,209 1,035
Chromium metal (gross
quantity) 14,090 13,333 11,147 11,006 10,866
percentage of

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Recycling: In 2015, recycled chromium (contained in reported stainless steel scrap receipts)
accounted for 34% of apparent consumption.
Chromite (mineral): South Africa, 98%; and other, 2%.
Chromium-containing scrap: Canada, 50%; Mexico, 42%; and other, 8%.
Chromium (primary metal): South Africa, 33%; Kazakhstan, 18%; Russia, 10%; and other, 39%.
Total imports: South Africa, 37%; Kazakhstan, 16%; Russia, 8%; and other, 39%.
World Resources: World resources are greater than 12 billion tons of shipping-grade chromite,
sufficient to meet conceivable demand for centuries. About 95% of the world’s chromium
resources are geographically concentrated in Kazakhstan and southern Africa; U.S. chromium
resources are mostly in the Stillwater Complex in Montana.
Chromium Recycling
From “Chromium Depletion and Recycling”, L. David Roper, July 2, 2016:
It appears that the recent rapid rise in extraction rate is unsustainable for more than a few
decades or so from now.
Most of the chromium is recycled with the stainless steel. One exception is chromium in tannery
operations. From The International Journal of Advanced Management and Science,
“Operational Management Of Chromium Recycling From Tannery Wastewater”, M.Badar et al:
Operational management is an important step in production process of a chemical reaction for
getting good quality of yield with economical way as taken in recycling of chromium from tannery
waste. It is most widely used the Chromium (III) salts as a chemical in the process of
tanning. Only 60%-70% of chromium salt is used to reacts with the skins and hides but 30%-
40% of remaining chromium chemicals are wasted in form of the solid and liquid (as tanning
solutions). Consequently, the recovery and recycling of the chromium metal content of existed

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wastewaters is essential for economic reasons and environmental protection. Recycling and
recovery of chromium metal is supported by using chemical precipitation methods. For achieving
this special aim, calcium hydroxide plus alum and magnesium oxide are used as two
precipitating agents. This is a confirmatory Study on the effects of stirring time, pH, sludge and
settling rate volume in batch experiments. These Results are showed that the optimum pH for
efficient recovery was done at 8.5, good sludge with high settling rate and lower volume during
recovery process was achieved. Based on these findings an economical recovery plant
was designed. The recovery achieved about 99(%) at pH 8 with stirring at 90 rpm.
Cobalt Production
From Wikipedia:
Cobalt is a chemical element with symbol Co and atomic number 27. Like nickel, cobalt is found
in the Earth's crust only in chemically combined form, save for small deposits found in alloys of
natural meteoric iron. The free element, produced by reductive smelting, is a hard, lustrous,
silver-gray metal.
Cobalt-based blue pigments (cobalt blue) have been used since ancient times for jewelry and
paints, and to impart a distinctive blue tint to glass, but the color was later thought by alchemists
to be due to the known metal bismuth. Miners had long used the name kobold ore (German
for goblin ore) for some of the blue-pigment producing minerals; they were so named because
they were poor in known metals, and gave poisonous arsenic-containing fumes upon smelting.
In 1735, such ores were found to be reducible to a new metal (the first discovered since ancient
times), and this was ultimately named for the kobold.
Today, some cobalt is produced specifically from various metallic-lustered ores, for
example cobaltite (CoAsS), but the main source of the element is as a by-product
of copper and nickel mining. The copper belt in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Central
African Republic and Zambia yields most of the cobalt mined worldwide.
Cobalt is primarily used in the preparation of magnetic, wear-resistant and high-strength alloys.
The compounds, cobalt silicate and cobalt(II) aluminate (CoAl2O4, cobalt blue) give a distinctive
deep blue color to glass, ceramics, inks, paints and varnishes. Cobalt occurs naturally as only
one stable isotope, cobalt-59. Cobalt-60 is a commercially important radioisotope, used as
a radioactive tracer and for the production of high energy gamma rays.
Wikipedia left out two things important – aircraft gas turbine engines and lithium ion batteries.
From Industrial minerals website, “The Role of Cobalt in Battery Supply, by Cameron Perks,
September 16, 2016:
The importance of cobalt to many lithium battery chemistries is sometimes forgotten, with
industry news tending to focus solely on lithium itself. Delegates at the Battery Metals
Conference in Beijing last week took a closer look at the battery supply chain.

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While elements such as nickel, lithium and manganese have important roles to play in various
popular battery chemistries, cobalt is the critical mineral concerning many industry experts.
The reason for this is the nature of its source, with over 50% of the world’s supply mined in
conflict-stricken Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
With rechargeable battery electrodes being the primary use for cobalt, recent instability in the
DRC has been unnerving.
Last week there were several reports of violent outbreaks and on Friday the border crossing
between DRC and Zambia was closed for 24 hours by the Zambians to prevent trouble spilling
over into the country.
To add to the already concerning story, Mo Ke, chief analyst at RealLi Research, said at the
2016 Argus Battery Metals Conference last week in Beijing that there would "probably be a
shortage next year", thanks to a combination of increasing demand and restricted supply. Some
commentators, such as Ian Pringle, managing director of Bayrock Materials and Pacific Basin
Bluestone, thinks that this is an understatement.
From USGS report on Cobalt production:
Domestic Production and Use: In 2015, a nickel-copper mine in Michigan ramped up
production of cobalt-bearing nickel concentrate. A Pennsylvania producer of extra-fine cobalt
metal powder ceased producing the powder in 2015. Most U.S. cobalt supply comprised imports
and secondary (scrap) materials. Six companies were known to produce cobalt chemicals.
About 46% of the cobalt consumed in the United States was used in super alloys, mainly in
aircraft gas turbine engines; 9% in cemented carbides for cutting and wear-resistant
applications; 18% in various other metallic applications; and 27% in a variety of chemical
applications. The total estimated value of cobalt consumed in 2015 was $280 million.

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2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
Production:
Mine — — — 120 700
Secondary 2,210 2,160 2,160 2,200 2,500
Exports 3,390 3,760 3,850 4,500 3,900
Shipments from
Excesses — — — — —
Consumption:
Reported (includes
secondary) 9,180 8,660 8,090 8,560 9,000
Apparent (includes
secondary) 9,230 9,510 8,670 8,920 10,000
Price, average, dollars
per pound:
U.S. spot, cathode 17.99 14.07 12.89 14.48 13.50
London Metal Exchange
(LME), cash 16.01 13.06 12.26 14.00 13.10
Net import reliance4 as
a percentage of
Recycling: In 2015, cobalt contained in purchased scrap represented an estimated 28% of
cobalt reported consumption.
Import Sources (2011–14): Cobalt contained in metal, oxide, and salts: China, 19%; Norway,
13%; Finland and Russia, 9% each; and other, 50%.
World Resources: Identified cobalt resources of the United States are estimated to be about 1
million tons. Most of these resources are in Minnesota, but other important occurrences are in
Alaska, California, Idaho, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, Oregon, and Pennsylvania. With the
exception of resources in Idaho and Missouri, any future cobalt production from these deposits
would be as a byproduct of another metal. Identified world terrestrial cobalt resources are about
25 million tons. The vast majority of these resources are in sediment-hosted stratiform copper
deposits in Congo (Kinshasa) and Zambia; nickel-bearing laterite deposits in Australia and
nearby island countries and Cuba; and magmatic nickel-copper sulfide deposits hosted in mafic
and ultramafic rocks in Australia, Canada, Russia, and the United States. More than 120 million
tons of cobalt resources have been identified in manganese nodules and crusts on the floor of
the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans.
So Cobalt is a strategic metal and could become scarce very fast. That would be a problem for
the expansion of the electric automobile industry.

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Cobalt Recycling
From ecobalt.com:
The battery industry currently uses 42 percent of global cobalt production, a critical metal for
Lithium-ion cells. The remaining 58 percent is used in diverse industrial and military applications
(super alloys, catalysts, magnets, pigments…) that rely exclusively on the material…
The Tenke Fungurume mine is one of the world’s largest known cobalt resources. The
concessions are located in the Katanga province in the southeast region of the Democratic
Republic of the Congo (DRC). Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) holds a 56 percent interest,
Lundin Mining (OTCPK:LUNMF) holds an indirect 24 percent equity interest and Gécamines, the
Congolese state mining company, holds a 20 percent carried interest.
In May, 2016, China Molybdenum acquired Freeport’s 56 percent controlling interest in the
mine for US$2.65 billion, the largest investment ever in the country. Lundin Mining was left with
three options: allow the China Moly deal to proceed, supplant the offer by exercising a right to
first offer or sell its own stake to China Moly (or a third party, for that matter).
In November, and after several extensions, Lundin Mining finally announced it was selling its 24
percent stake to an affiliate of Chinese private-equity firm BHR Partners for US$1.14 billion.
Freeport’s sale to China Moly was expected to be completed before year’s end, whilst Lundin
plans to close its sale in early 2017.
China Moly also acquired this year from Freeport a 100 percent interest in the Kisanfu
exploration project located in the DRC and a 56 percent controlling interest in the Kokkola
refinery in Finland (about 10 percent of the world’s refined cobalt last year). Needless to say that
all that cobalt from the refinery is expected to be shipped to China, South Korea and Japan from
now on.
The implications are clear. China is now leveling its game in upstream cobalt and is already a
major owner of downstream assets in the DRC, embodied by Huayou Cobalt and Zhejiang
Huayou Cobalt. It will keep on securing cobalt mines and downstream assets for its own needs.
In November, Albert Yuma Mulimbi, head of the state-controlled Gécamines, passed on to the
Financial Times his discontent of partnerships with western companies and, in particular, on the
Freeport-McMoRan deal. Left with minority investments in most joint ventures (JV), Mr. Yuma
believes that existing deals failed to deliver on dividends. The partnership with China Nonferrous
Metal Mining. where Gécamines has a 49 percent stake, is the model he wants to generalize.
One more headache for western operators…
New primary cobalt mines may come online should cobalt prices soar; however, exploration,
licensing and development take time and require billions of dollars of investments. In addition, 60

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percent of the world’s cobalt reserves and resources originate in the DRC, which is riddled with
child labor and exploitation.
On the demand front, and according to the Cobalt Development Institute (CDI), 58 percent of
global cobalt production is already used in many diverse industrial and military applications
(super alloys, catalysts, magnets, pigments…) that rely exclusively on the material. Cobalt
represents a negligible part of the costs for these companies and thus they can afford to pay
regardless of the price. But that is a dangerous game for battery makers. Material costs account
for about 60 percent of LIB total cost and battery makers cannot take away cobalt from
companies for whom the metal is an absolute requirement. Think GE and its jet engines.
A complete shift away from high-energy batteries looks hypothetical at this stage: NMC, NCA
and LCO batteries provide the highest energy density as reported by Battery University, and all
require cobalt. However, there has been recently efforts to produce other types of battery
chemistries that do not require cobalt as stated by the CRU. Tesla has also been trying to
remove cobalt from the equation and add nickel instead, according to its CTO JB Straubel.
We may well see a quick turnaround from cobalt-intensive batteries toward a validated and
optimized new high-energy battery technology should it go online. And the high costs triggered
by a shift away from traditional batteries might prove beneficial when opposed with the prospects
a cobalt cliff. So far attempts for substituting cobalt resulted in a loss in product performance. But
nothing is set in stone.
Recycling. Cobalt (as opposed to oil, for instance) is fully recyclable. Roughly 15 percent of
U.S. cobalt consumption is from recycled scrap today. For many applications, the metal is used
but not consumed and so can be recycled. Needless to say that recycling can help reduce the
need to hunt for new sources of cobalt. In no circumstances is this a magic solution whereby 100
percent can be recycled indefinitely. Existing processes are energy-consuming and can
definitely be improved. But that is also an idea to weigh in the balance.
Cobalt recycling, anyone? So much for Elon Musk and Tesla. This is not a good sign for
replacing gas guzzlers. Big talkers and few resources don’t mix!

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Copper Production
From USGS report on copper production:
Domestic Production and Use: U.S. mine production of copper in 2015 decreased by 8% to
about 1.25 million tons, and was valued at about $7.6 billion. Arizona, New Mexico, Utah,
Nevada, Montana, and Michigan—in descending order of production—accounted for more than
99% of domestic mine production; copper also was recovered in Idaho and Missouri. Twenty-six
mines recovered copper, 18 of which accounted for about 99% of production. Three primary
smelters, 3 electrolytic and 4 fire refineries, and 15 electro winning facilities operated during
2015. Refined copper and scrap were used at about 30 brass mills, 14 rod mills, and 500
foundries and miscellaneous consumers. Copper and copper alloys products were used in
building construction, 43%; electric and electronic products, 19%; transportation equipment,
19%; consumer and general products, 12%; and industrial machinery and equipment, 7%.
Copper prices collapsed along with crude oil starting in 2014. However, consumption held
steady.
2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
Production: Mine,
recoverable 1,110 1,170 1,250 1,360 1,250
Refinery: Primary 992 962 993 1,050 1,000
Secondary 37 39 47 46 50
Copper from old scrap 153 164 166 171 160
Ores and concentrates 15 6 3 >0.5 >0.5
Refined 670 630 734 620 770
General imports, refined 649 628 730 614 700
Exports: Ores and
concentrates 252 301 348 410 380
Refined 40 169 111 127 120
Consumption: Reported,
refined 1,760 1,760 1,830 1,750 1,800
Apparent,
unmanufactured 1,730 1,760 1,760 1,780 1,780
Price, average, cents
per pound: Domestic
producer, cathode 405.9 367.3 339.9 318.1 277.0
London Metal Exchange,
high-grade 399.8 360.6 332.3 311.1 270.0
mill, thousands 10.6 11.5 12.1 12.1 11.4

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2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
consumption (refined
copper) 34 36 34 31 36
Recycling: Old scrap, converted to refined metal and alloys, provided 160,000 tons of copper,
equivalent to 9% of apparent consumption. Purchased new scrap, derived from fabricating
operations, yielded 670,000 tons of contained copper. Of the total copper recovered from scrap
(including aluminum- and nickel-base scrap), brass mills recovered 79%; copper smelters,
refiners, and ingot makers, 15%; and miscellaneous manufacturers, foundries, and chemical
plants, 6%. Copper in all scrap contributed about 32% of the U.S. copper supply.
Unmanufactured (ore and concentrates, blister and anodes, refined, and so forth): Chile, 51%;
Canada, 26%; Mexico, 16%; and other, 7%.
Refined copper accounted for 87% of unmanufactured copper imports.
World Resources: A 1998 USGS assessment estimated that 550 million tons of copper was
contained in identified and undiscovered resources in the United States. A 2014 USGS global
assessment of copper deposits indicated that identified resources contain about 2.1 billion tons
of copper (porphyry deposits accounted for 1.8 billion tons of those resources), and
undiscovered resources contained an estimated 3.5 billion tons.
Copper Recycling
From the balance web site, “The Importance of Copper Recycling Copper Recycling Provides
Key Environmental and Economic Benefits”, By Rick LeBlanc, Updated August 01, 2015:
The Environmental Importance of Copper Recycling
As with other metals, there are significant environmental benefits to the recycling of copper.
These include solid waste diversion, reduced energy requirements for processing, and natural
resource conservation.
For example, the energy requirements of recycled copper are as much as 85 to 90 percent less
than the processing of new copper from virgin ore. In terms of conservation, copper is a non-
renewable resource, although only 12 percent of known reserves have been consumed. Known
U.S. reserves of copper are thought to total 1.6 billion metric tons, with production concentrated
in Arizona, Utah, New Mexico, Nevada and Montana. About 99 percent of domestic production is
generated from 20 mines.

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An emerging environmental challenge for copper is its use in the ever-increasing production of
electrical products that still experience low recycling rates. This trend is changing for the better,
however, through electronics recycling initiatives.
The Economic Importance of Copper Recycling
Ranking immediately behind Chile in copper production, the United States is largely self-
sufficient in copper supply. The U.S. produces roughly 8 percent of the world’s copper supply.
Almost half of U.S. production comes from recycled material, however.
In 2010, U.S. recyclers processed 1.8 million metric tons of copper for domestic use and export,
second only to aluminum among nonferrous metals, which saw 4.6 million metric tons recycled.
Slightly over one-half or recycled copper scrap is new scrap recovery including chips and
machine turnings, with the rest being old post-consumer scrap such as electrical cable, old
radiators and plumbing tube.
There is still a good deal of improvement that can be made in copper recycling since copper
imports significantly exceed production as shown in Figure 3, “Copper Production/Consumption
and Net Trade”. From SNL Metals & Mining, “U.S. Mines to Market”, September, 2014:
There are currently 20 minesproducingcopper in the United States, with two mines— Bingham
Canyon in Utah and Morenci in Arizona — accounting for 38 percent of the country’s output. These
are relativelyhigh cost producers.
Theaveragecostof miningcopperintheUnitedStates in the past fiveyearshas increasedby30
percent,from $1.48/lbto $1.93/lb, which comparesfavorablyagainst therest of theglobal industry,
where costs increasedby 39 percent. Nevertheless,theUnitedStateshasremained ahighcost
producerof copper…
Costshave generallyincreaseddueto mininglower gradeore, anincreaseinstripping ratios(waste
relative to ore) alongwith higher inputcosts. Continued investmentinmodernminingequipment,
adoptionof innovativeminingandextractiontechniques,and recruitmentandretentionof
experiencedpersonnel will be essential if the copper miningindustry is to continueoperating
profitably.
See Figure 4, “Top U.S. Copper Mines”. Obviously, something has to be done for U.S. copper
mining to compete with two of the three leading importers, Chile and Mexico. This is the same
situation as aluminum. This is another example where the U.S. has to decide between lower
prices for copper or jobs. The copper products producers in the U.S. will keep buying less
expensive foreign supplies unless they are stopped by tariffs on copper imports.

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Gallium Production
From Wikipedia:
Gallium is a chemical element with symbol Ga and atomic number 31. It is in group 13 of the
periodic table, and thus has similarities to the other metals of the group, aluminium, indium,
and thallium. Gallium does not occur as a free element in nature, but as gallium(III) compounds
in trace amounts in zinc ores and in bauxite. Elemental gallium is a soft, silvery blue metal
at standard temperature and pressure, a brittle solid at low temperatures, and a liquid at
temperatures greater than 29.76 °C (85.57 °F) (slightly above room temperature). The melting
point of gallium is used as a temperature reference point. The alloy galinstan (68.5% gallium,
21.5% indium, and 10% tin) has an even lower melting point of −19 °C (−2 °F), well below the
freezing point of water.
Since its discovery in 1875, gallium has been used to make alloys with low melting points. It is
also used in semiconductors as a dopant in semiconductor substrates.
Gallium is predominantly used in electronics. Gallium arsenide, the primary chemical
compound of gallium in electronics, is used in microwave circuits, high-speed switching circuits,
and infrared circuits. Semiconductive gallium nitride and indium gallium nitride produce blue and
violet light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and diode lasers. Gallium is also used in the production of
artificial gadolinium gallium garnet for jewelry.
From USGS report on Gallium production:
Domestic Production and Use: No domestic primary (low-grade, unrefined) gallium has been
recovered since 1987. Globally, primary gallium is recovered as a byproduct of processing
bauxite and zinc ores. One company in Utah recovered and refined high-purity gallium from
imported low-grade primary gallium metal and new scrap. Imports of gallium were valued at
about $9 million. Gallium arsenide (GaAs) and gallium nitride (GaN) wafers used in integrated
circuits (ICs) and optoelectronic devices accounted for approximately 75% of domestic gallium
consumption. Production of trimethyl gallium and triethyl gallium, metalorganic sources of
gallium used in the epitaxial layering process for the production of light-emitting diodes (LEDs),
accounted for most of the remainder. About 57% of the gallium consumed was used in ICs.
Optoelectronic devices, which include laser diodes, LEDs, photodetectors, and solar cells,
accounted for nearly all of the remaining gallium consumption. Optoelectronic devices were used
in aerospace applications, consumer goods, industrial equipment, medical equipment, and
telecommunications equipment. Uses of ICs included defense applications, high-performance
computers, and telecommunications equipment.

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2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
Production, primary — — — — —
Exports NA NA NA NA NA
Consumption, reported 35,300 34,400 37,800 35,800 36,000
Price, yearend, dollars
per kilogram 688 529 502 363 295
a percentage of reported
consumption 100 100 100 100 100
Recycling: Old scrap, none. Substantial quantities of new scrap generated in the manufacture of
GaAs-based devices were reprocessed to recover high-purity gallium at one facility in Utah.
Import Sources (2011–14): Germany, 35%; China, 26%; United Kingdom, 22%; Ukraine, 9%;
and other, 8%.
World Resources: The average gallium content of bauxite is 50 parts per million (ppm). U.S.
bauxite deposits consist mainly of sub economic that are not generally suitable for alumina
production owing to their high silica content. Recovery of gallium from these deposits is therefore
unlikely. Some domestic zinc ores contain as much as 50 ppm gallium and could be a significant
resource, although no gallium is currently recovered from domestic ore. Gallium contained in
world resources of bauxite is estimated to exceed 1 million metric tons, and a considerable
quantity could be contained in world zinc resources. However, only a small percentage of the
gallium in bauxite and zinc resources is potentially recoverable.
Gallium Recycling
Two companies, Eagle Metal group and Umicore, advertise for rare metals and Gallium is one of
them. End-of-life recycling of Gallium is difficult due to the dissipative use of gallium. Most of the
recovered gallium comes from the production residues of gallium used in the epitaxy process for
making semiconductors.
Electronics recycling is going to have to increase significantly in the U.S. to recover rare metals
like Gallium. From Germany’s Information Center of Ministry of Land and Resources, “Supply
and Demand of Lithium and Gallium”:
Gallium is recovered both as primary production, and secondary from recycled gallium-bearing
scrap, mainly compounds. Primary gallium is typically recovered at 99.9 to 99.99 % (3N, 4N),
and then refined to higher purities depending on the further use. 4N gallium is used for
metallurgical, chemical and solar applications. For electronic and compound semiconductor

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applications 6N (99.9999 %) to 7N (99.99999 %) purity is required. Very high purity gallium (8N)
is used for molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) applications.
About 90 % of current primary gallium production is extracted from bauxite during the refining of
alumina. The most commonly used process for the production of alumina from bauxite, and thus
gallium is the Bayer process, named after the Austrian chemist Karl Joseph Bayer, who
developed a method for supplying alumina to the textile industry in 1888 (SEECHARRAN 2010).
During the process the aluminium bearing minerals in bauxite – gibbsite, boehmite and diaspore
– are selectively extracted from the insoluble components Supply and Demand of Lithium and
Gallium 31 by dissolving them in a solution of sodium hydroxide (caustic soda) at high
temperatures and high pressure. The solution contains sodium aluminate and non-dissolved
bauxite residue containing iron, silicon, titanium, aluminium, and other elements in small
quantities, including gallium.
Recycling of gallium is another significant source for the market. At present, no gallium is
recovered from post-consumers scrap, so the wastes from the production of GaAs and GaN
wafers are the most important source for secondary gallium. The fabrication of these
semiconductor wafers generates about 60 % new scrap, with a gallium content ranging from 1 to
99.99 %.
No primary gallium has been recovered in the USA since 1987. There is only one company
which recovers and refines gallium from imported primary gallium metal and new scrap:
Molycorp Inc. is an American mining corporation headquartered in Greenwood Village,
Colorado, USA. It is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of rare earth and rare metal
products with 25 locations across ten countries. Molycorp produces high purity gallium in 4N,
6N, 7N and MBE (8N) grades from high purity gallium arsenide scrap as well as by upgrading
primary gallium from various global producers. Molycorp Blanding: Refining of gallium, both from
scrap and from primary gallium takes place at its Blanding plant in Utah. In 2013 and 2014,
Molycorp produced 46 t and 57 t respectively of refined gallium from primary metal, and further
13 t annually from scrap feedstock (the last includes production at its Peterborough, Canada
plant; …).
Germanium Production
From Wikipedia:
Germanium is a chemical element with symbol Ge and atomic number 32. It is a lustrous, hard,
grayish-white metalloid in the carbon group, chemically similar to its group
neighbors tin and silicon. Pure germanium is a semiconductor with an appearance similar to
elemental silicon. Like silicon, germanium naturally reacts and forms complexes with oxygen in
nature. Unlike silicon, it is too reactive to be found naturally on Earth in the free (elemental)
state.

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Because it seldom appears in high concentration, germanium was discovered comparatively late
in the history of chemistry. Germanium ranks near fiftieth in relative abundance of the elements
in the Earth's crust. In 1869, Dmitri Mendeleev predicted its existence and some of its properties
from its position on his periodic table, and called the element ekasilicon. Nearly two decades
later, in 1886, Clemens Winkler found the new element along with silver and sulfur, in a rare
mineral called argyrodite. Although the new element somewhat
resembled arsenic and antimony in appearance, the combining ratios in compounds agreed with
Mendeleev's predictions for a relative of silicon. Winkler named the element after his
country, Germany. Today, germanium is mined primarily from sphalerite (the primary ore of
zinc), though germanium is also recovered commercially from silver, lead, and copper ores.
Germanium "metal" (isolated germanium) is used as a semiconductor in transistors and various
other electronic devices. Historically, the first decade of semiconductor electronics was based
entirely on germanium. Today, the amount of germanium produced for semiconductor
electronics is one fiftieth the amount of ultra-high purity silicon produced for the same. Presently,
the major end uses are fibre-optic systems, infrared optics, solar cell applications, and light-
emitting diodes (LEDs). Germanium compounds are also used for polymerization catalysts and
have most recently found use in the production of nanowires. This element forms a large number
of organometallic compounds, such as tetraethylgermane, useful in organometallic chemistry.
From USGS report on Germanium production:
Domestic Production and Use: Germanium production in the United States comes from either
the processing of imported germanium compounds or the recycling of domestic industry-
generated scrap. Germanium for domestic consumption also was obtained from imported
germanium chemicals that were directly consumed or consumed in the production of other
germanium compounds. Germanium was recovered from zinc concentrates produced at mines
in Alaska and Washington and exported to Canada for processing. A zinc smelter in Clarksville,
TN, produced and exported germanium leach concentrates recovered from processing zinc
concentrates from its mines in Tennessee. A germanium processor in Utica, NY, produced
germanium tetrachloride for optical-fiber production. A refinery in Quapaw, OK, processed scrap
and imported chemicals into refined germanium and compounds for the production of fiber
optics, infrared optical devices, and substrates for electronic devices. The domestic end-use
distribution was estimated to be: fiber optics, 40%; infrared optics, 30%; electronics and solar
applications, 20%; and other uses, 10%. Germanium was not used in polymerization catalysts in
the United States. The worldwide end-use pattern for germanium was estimated to be: fiber
optics, 30%; infrared optics, 20%; polymerization catalysts, 20%; electronics and solar
applications, 15%; and other uses (such as phosphors, metallurgy, and chemotherapy), 15%. In
2015, estimated domestic consumption of germanium declined from that in 2014 by about 6%.
Consumption for fiber optics and substrates for space-based applications increased from that in
2014, but use in infrared optics declined. Germanium-containing infrared optics are primarily for
military use, and defense-related spending has declined during the past few years. Growth in the

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commercial and personal markets for thermal-imaging devices that use lenses containing
germanium partially offset the decline in defense consumption.
2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
Production, refinery 3,000 ? ? ? ?
Total imports 38,500 48,500 45,700 36,200 37,000
Total exports 5,900 15,300 12,500 12,000 12,000
Shipments from
Excesses — — — — —
Consumption, estimated 36,000 38,000 38,000 32,000 30,000
Price, producer, yearend,
dollars per kilogram:
Zone refined 1,450 1,640 1,900 1,900 1,760
Dioxide, electronic grade 1,250 1,360 1,230 1,300 1,170
percentage of estimated
Recycling: Worldwide, about 30% of the total germanium consumed is produced from recycled
materials. During the manufacture of most optical devices, more than 60% of the germanium
metal used is routinely recycled as new scrap. Germanium scrap is also recovered from the
window blanks in decommissioned tanks and other military vehicles.
Import Sources (2011–14): China, 63%; Belgium, 20%; Russia, 9%; Canada, 4%; and other,
4%.
World Resources: The available resources of germanium are associated with certain zinc and
lead-zinc-copper sulfide ores. Substantial U.S. reserves of recoverable germanium are
contained in zinc deposits in Alaska and Tennessee. Based on an analysis of zinc concentrates,
U.S. reserves of zinc may contain as much as 2,500 tons of germanium. Because zinc
concentrates are shipped globally and blended at smelters, however, the recoverable
germanium in zinc reserves cannot be determined. On a global scale, as little as 3% of the
germanium contained in zinc concentrates is recovered. Significant amounts of germanium are
contained in ash and flue dust generated in the combustion of certain coals for power
generation.
Germanium Recycling
Eagle Metal Group, Umicore, Novotech, and PIKA International are a few buying scrap
germanium. This metal along with the other rare metals like Gallium, Indium, and Tellurium are
going to become increasingly rare and increasingly expensive. Recycling electronics will become
very popular in the future.

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Gold Production
From SNL Metals & Mining, “U.S. Mines to Market”, September, 2014:
Gold, morethanany other commodity,isstrongly associated with the financial sector, from gold
heldby central banks, to its use as a financial asset by a large numberof investors. It is also a vital
constituent of jewelry. It is used inelectronics, mobilephones, computersystems, andinavarietyof
high-performance and safety critical electronic systems.
Advancesingold-basednanotechnologyaremaking contributions to diversesectors from medicine
to renewable energy.Researchindicatesgold nanotechnologyto bean efficientand accurate
method for deliveringcancertreatments.Goldnanoparticlesare alsobeing used to improve the
efficiency of solar cells. New research shows that goldcan be used incatalytic convertors, with a
moreeffectiveformulationwhen combinedwith palladium andplatinum.
Thepollution-preventioncapacityof goldisbeing tested inKentucky,with researchers usinga gold
and palladium catalysttoremovechlorinatedcompounds from water in the state. Gold could
becomean efficient andcost-effective tool to managepollutionresulting from industrial activities.
The UnitedStates is the fourth largest producer of goldin the world, accounting for 8.2 percent of
global production in 2013. U.S. mined gold production in 2013 was estimated at 229 tons, with
domestic refined production at 400 tons. Reported U.S. consumption (excluding stocks) was 160
tons, and the U.S. had a positive trade balance, with net trade reported at 450 tons.
See Figure 5, “Top U.S. Gold Mines”. From USGS report on Gold production:
Domestic Production and Use: In 2015, domestic gold mine production was estimated to be
about 200 tons, 5% less than that in 2014, and the value was estimated to be about $7.6 billion.
Gold was produced at fewer than 45 lode mines, at several large placer mines in Alaska, and
numerous smaller placer mines (mostly in Alaska and in the Western States). About 7% of
domestic gold was recovered as a byproduct of processing domestic base-metal ores, chiefly
copper. The top 29 operations yielded more than 99% of the mined gold produced in the United
States. Commercial-grade gold was produced at about 25 refineries. A few dozen companies,
out of several thousand companies and artisans, dominated the fabrication of gold into
commercial products. U.S. jewelry manufacturing was heavily concentrated in the New York,
NY, and Providence, RI, areas, with lesser concentrations in California, Florida, and Texas.
Estimated domestic uses were jewelry; 43%; electrical and electronics, 37%; official coins, 15%;
and other, 5%.

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2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
Production:
Mine 234 235 230 210 200
Refinery:
Primary 220 222 223 203 200
Secondary (new and
old scrap) 263 215 210 161 140
Exports 664 695 691 500 500
Consumption, reported 168 147 160 150 150
Price, dollars per troy
Ounce 1,572 1,673 1,415 1,269 1,170
mill, number 11,100 12,700 13,000 11,800 11,000
Recycling: In 2015, 140 tons of new and old scrap was recycled, slightly less than the reported
consumption. Following the decline in price, the domestic and global supply of gold from
recycling continued to decline from the high level in 2011.
Import Sources (2011–14): Mexico, 41%; Canada, 19%; Colombia, 13%; Peru, 8%; and other,
19%.
World Resources: An assessment of U.S. gold resources indicated 33,000 tons of gold in
identified (15,000 tons) and undiscovered (18,000 tons) resources. Nearly one-quarter of the
gold in undiscovered resources was estimated to be contained in porphyry copper deposits. The
gold resources in the United States, however, are only a small portion of global gold resources
Gold Recycling
The prospects for recycling more gold are confusing at this point. The possibility is that
individuals may start hording gold in the future and the U.S. gold supply may be a big problem in
the future. On the other hand, individuals may start hocking every bit of gold they have as the
price rises in order to get cash. The price will certainly rise tremendously when the economic
crisis begins. Like silver imports, Mexico and Canada are the main sources of imports.

Future Trends - Recycling - Metals - Part II

Future Trends - Recycling - Metals - Part II

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Future Trends - Recycling - Metals - Part II