Polish copper and silver mining group KGHM Polska Miedź plans to undertake activities to explore and extract rare earth elements. The company's chief executive Herbert Wirth announced that KGHM plans to purchase attractive exploration licenses in different countries.

Currently the bulk of KGHM's profits come from mining copper (the company is in the top 10 of copper producers in the world), and silver (in 2011 it was the world's biggest producer), but it wants to diversify its production.

“We want to be a multi-metal company, one that focuses not only on copper and silver but also on other metals,” said Mr Wirth to newseria.pl. Rare earth metals, such as scandium and yttrium, are used in wind-farm construction, as well as in electronic and electrical equipment. Mr Wirth said that KGHM feels it has a responsibility to supply these materials for the Polish and European industry.

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The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has launched a research hub that focuses on solutions to the domestic shortages of rare earth metals and other materials critical for U.S. energy security.

Housed at Ames Laboratory in Iowa, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) has been involved in establishing this Energy Innovation Hub since its conception more than two years ago. In 2010, on behalf of DOE, LLNL hosted the first U.S.-Japan workshop on rare earths elements. Ed Jones and Adam Schwartz have been closely tied to the initiative.

The initial team, made up of Ames, LLNL, Colorado School of Mines, and Molycorp Inc., established a 'national network' that eventually resulted in the proposal team; helped DOE on its critical materials strategy; and continued interactions on behalf of DOE at the international level.

The rare earths comprise 17 elements in the periodic table—scandium, yttrium, and the 15 lanthanides (lanthanum, cerium, praseodymium, neodymium, promethium, samarium, europium, gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium, holmium, erbium, thulium, ytterbium, and lutetium). Despite their name, the rare earths (with the exception of promethium) are not all that rare, but are actually found in relatively high concentrations across the globe. However, because of their geochemical properties, they seldom occur in easily exploitable deposits.

Rare earth elements are essential for American competitiveness in the clean energy industry because they are used in many devices important to a high-tech economy and national security, including computer components, high-power magnets, wind turbines, mobile phones, solar panels, superconductors, hybrid/electric vehicle batteries, LCD screens, night vision goggles, tunable microwave resonators—and, at the Laboratory, NIF's neodymium-glass laser amplifiers.

A DOE report said in 2011 that supply problems associated with five rare earth elements (dysprosium, terbium, europium, neodymium, and yttrium) may affect clean energy development in coming years.

The new research center, which will be named the Critical Materials Institute (CMI), will bring together leading researchers from academia, four DOE national laboratories, as well as the private sector.

"Rare earth metals and other critical materials are essential to manufacturing wind turbines, electric vehicles, advanced batteries and a host of other products that are essential to America's energy and national security, " says David Danielson, assistant secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. "The Critical Materials Institute will bring together the best and brightest research minds from universities, national laboratories and the private sector to find innovative technology solutions that will help us avoid a supply shortage that would threaten our clean energy industry as well as our security interests."

The hub will address challenges across the entire life cycle of these materials. This ranges from enabling new sources; improving the economics of existing sources; accelerating material development and deployment; more efficient use in manufacturing; recycling and reuse; and developing strategies to assess and address the life cycles of new materials.

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JOHANNESBURG – London-listed Galileo Resources on Friday said it had completed due diligence at the Nkombwa Hill rare-earth project, in Zambia, after confirming tenure.

The emerging rare-earth exploration and development company intended issuing 5.25-million shares at 5p or $0.08 a share to Rare Earth International (REI) following the findings that the large-scale prospecting licence was the sole existing exploration right over the Nkombwa Hill deposit.

Last year, Galileo entered into a heads of agreement with joint venture partner REI to earn an interest in the rare-earth project, but delays in the completion of due diligence ensued when the Zambian Mines Development Department’s administration centre declined to release key licensing documentation, owing to a moratorium on licences held.

A Zambia-based legal practise, contracted by Galileo, also found that the licence was in “good standing” with, and recognised by, the Zambian Ministry of Mines and Mineral Development.

"We are extremely pleased that the due diligence report is now finalised and that it confirms that the Nkombwa prospecting licence is in good standing and unencumbered,” said Galileo executive chairperson Colin Bird.

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Its reports that a new research institute for rare earths is to be built in Ames, Iowa. The US Department of Energy will provide $120m for the Critical Material Institute.

The US wants to reduce its dependency on China, which produces more than 95% of the world's rare earth elements, and address local shortages.

According to the US Geological Survey, there may be deposits of rare earths in 14 US states.

"The Critical Materials Institute will bring together the best and brightest research minds from universities, national laboratories and the private sector to find innovative technology solutions that will help us avoid a supply shortage that would threaten our clean energy industry as well as our security interests," he said in a statement.

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