Loud Thinking

Posts Tagged ‘earth’

India’s thermonuclear bomb https://tribune.com.pk/story/2070720/6-indias-thermonuclear-bomb/

India is setting the groundwork for a more ambitious hydrogen bomb project at the Rare Materials Plant, 160 miles to the south of Rattehalli, close to the city of Mysore.

It pains me to say that despite writing (dozens of times since the advent of PTI government) directly to the PM Mr. Imran Khan and his (many) Federal Ministers, about the Pakistan’s WORTH and STRATEGIC VALUE of the Rare Earth Metals, there was ZERO Progress.
Attached below are the latest news in the world’s arena, on the subject, which highlights that besides, money, how much a country like Pakistan, can be at the center of the importance of the developed world, if our mineral resources are speedily exploited (specially all 17 REM’s) of above $51 trillion, which can be judged by the fact that the 2018 GDP of the top ten economies of the world was $58 trillion.
Sorry to say that there looks no difference in the attitude of previous and the current government’s in such matters of huge national importance.

1. From Discover on Google https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/se-asia/malaysia-can-draw-up-to-s33b-in-rare-earths-investment-over-next-10-years-minister
2. From Discover on Google https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-rareearths-pentagon-exclusive/exclusive-pentagon-races-to-track-us-rare-earths-output-amid-china-trade-dispute-idUSKCN1U727N

29 May 2019
Subject:- Strategic importance of Rate Earth Metals wealth of Pakistan

Respected Mr. Imran Khan Sahab.

AoA.

Sir,

Your kind attention is invited towards the following two international news publications of 29 May 2019, about Rare Earth Metals strategic importance (link provided below), as already narrated in some detail vide email dated 23 May 2019 attached below:

1. China gears up to weaponise Rare Earths as trade war..https://www.bloomberg.com/amp/news/articles/2019-05-29/china-gears-up-to-weaponize-rare-earths-dominance-in-trade-war
2. US risks devastating blow from China’s Rare Earth monopoly..https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-05-29/u-s-risks-devastating-blow-from-china-s-rare-earths-monopoly

In view of the very high strategic importance of the matter, kindly order top most priority for immediate start of work on recovery of mineral wealth of Pakistan, with particular reference to Rare Earth Metals wealth of Pakistan, which deserves much more importance than any other project of the country.

Best Regards,

Syed Nayyar Uddin Ahmad
03219402157
Lahore.

23 May 2019

Subject:- Mr. PM your urgent attention is requested – Pakistan have reserves of REM with much better recovery rate than China – Dr. Imran Khan – China’s rare earth supplies could be vital bargaining chip in U.S. trade war.

Dear Mr. Imran Khan Sahab,

AoA.

Sir,

According to Dr. Imran Khan, (as already informed repeatedly earlier), Pakistan’s worth of mineral wealth, minus oil and gas reserves is over $51 trillion which includes Rare Earth Metals ($53 trillion is the total worth of GDP of the top ten richest nations of the world).

In this regard, we can become top most wealthy nation of the world, if your government starts this project on a fast track basis, under the highly technical and professional guidance of Dr. Imran Khan, who is the only expert having done Geological Survey in Pakistan, India, China and the USA.

In this connection, in order to highlight the economic and strategic importance of the the REM’s; attached below is an article for your kind perusal, published today.

As such, kindly order top most priority for start of work on recovery of mineral wealth of Pakistan, which deserves much more importance than any other project in Pakistan.

China’s rare earth supplies could be vital bargaining chip in U.S. trade war

 Last Updated On 23 May,2019 02:20 pm

Samples of rare earth minerals, Cerium oxide, Bastnasite, Neodymium oxide and Lanthanum carbonate.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Rare earth elements are used in a wide range of consumer products, from iPhones to electric car motors, as well as military jet engines, satellites and lasers.

Rising tensions between the United States and China have sparked concerns that Beijing could use its dominant position as a supplier of rare earths for leverage in the trade war between the two global economic powers.

WHAT ARE RARE EARTHS USED IN?

Rare earths are used in rechargeable batteries for electric and hybrid cars, advanced ceramics, computers, DVD players, wind turbines, catalysts in cars and oil refineries, monitors, televisions, lighting, lasers, fiber optics, superconductors and glass polishing.

Several rare earth elements, such as neodymium and dysprosium, are critical to the motors used in electric vehicles.

RARE EARTHS IN MILITARY EQUIPMENT

Some rare earth minerals are essential in military equipment such as jet engines, missile guidance systems, antimissile defense systems, satellites, as well as in lasers.

Lanthanum, for example, is needed to manufacture night vision devices.

The U.S. Defense Department accounts for about 1% of U.S. demand, which in turn accounts for about 9% of global demand for rare earths, according to a 2016 report from the congressional U.S. Government Accountability Office.

A front-end loader is used to move material inside the open pit at Molycorp’s Mountain Pass Rare Earth facility in Mountain Pass

WHICH COMPANIES ARE MOST DEPENDENT ON CHINESE SUPPLIES?

Companies such as Raytheon Co, Lockheed Martin Corp and BAE Systems Plc all make sophisticated missiles that use rare earths metals in their guidance systems, and sensors. Lockheed and BAE declined to comment. Raytheon did not respond to a request for comment.

Apple Inc uses rare earth elements in speakers, cameras and the so-called “haptic” engines that make its phones vibrate.

The company says the elements are not available from traditional recyclers because they are used in such small amounts they cannot be recovered.

Since 2010, the government and private industry have built up stockpiles of rare earths and components that use them, according to Eugene Gholz, a former senior Pentagon supply chain expert, who teaches at the University of Notre Dame.

Some suppliers have scaled back their use of such elements, he said.

                  A bastnaesite mineral containing rare earth 

WHAT ARE RARE EARTHS AND WHERE DO THEY OCCUR?

Rare earth metals are a group of 17 elements – lanthanum, cerium, praseodymium, neodymium, promethium, samarium, europium, gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium, holmium, erbium, thulium, ytterbium, lutetium, scandium, yttrium – that appear in low concentrations in the ground.

Although they are more abundant than their name implies, they are difficult and costly to mine and process cleanly. China hosts most of the world’s processing capacity and supplied 80% of the rare earths imported by the United States from 2014 to 2017. In 2017, China accounted for 81% of the world’s rare earth production, data from the U.S. Geological Survey showed.

Importers made limited efforts to reduce rare earth consumption and dependence on China after a diplomatic dispute between China and Japan in 2010. Japan accused China of halting rare earth supplies for political reasons, sparking recognition worldwide of the risks of dependence on one supplier. China denied it had halted supplies.

Few alternative suppliers were able to compete with China, which is home to 37% of global rare earths reserves.

California’s Mountain Pass mine is the only operating U.S. rare earths facility. But MP Materials, owner of Mountain Pass, ships the roughly 50,000 tonnes of rare earth concentrate it extracts each year from California to China for processing.

China has imposed a tariff of 25% on those imports during the trade war.

Australia’s Lynas Corporation Ltd this week said it signed a memorandum of understanding with Texas-based Blue Line Corp to build a rare earth processing facility in the United States.

Rare earths are also mined in India, South Africa, Canada, Australia, Estonia, Malaysia and Brazil.

HOW ARE RARE EARTHS AFFECTED BY U.S. TARIFFS?

So far, the U.S. government has exempted rare earths from tariffs on Chinese goods.

OPTIONS TO REDUCE RELIANCE ON CHINESE IMPORTS

U.S. senators introduced legislation in May to encourage development of domestic supplies.

Recycling has also emerged as a potential source for rare earth minerals.

Nebraska-based Rare Earth Salts is taking old fluorescent light tubes and recycling them for their rare earth elements, which comprise about 20 percent of the bulb, according to the Association of Lamp and Mercury Recyclers.

Best Regards,

Syed Nayyar Uddin Ahmad
03219402157
Lahore.

A must read for the PM and the planners of Pakistan.

A letter titled “micro-finance instead of alms” published by the daily DAWN.

THE natural calamities that struck Pakistan in the last decade, including the 2005 earthquake, the floods of the last few years and even displacement of people due to military action, led to the formation of many new NGOs, as well as to expansion of activities of existing NGOs and a massive influx of local and foreign aid that was provided in the form of cash and kind to the affected parties. These are all lofty developments which bring a sense of munificence in the general populace but at the same time this can result in the proliferation in our society of the debilitating characteristic of mendicancy.

There is no harm in providing aid to poverty-stricken people but constantly providing financial help can lead to the habit of living in a situation where they don’t have to work, yet they receive financial help. In the long run this may result in the deteriorating of quality of labour which will affect the country economically, as well as result in the development of a psyche of scrounging which can have negative implications for the social fabric of the nation.

Instead of doling out donations, NGOs and relevant government institutions can design micro-financing projects under which the affected people are provided with small businesses in the form of a long-term loan, such as a fruit pushcart or a small pa’an shop or a French fries kiosk, or a few cows to sell milk in case of a rural area.

This is proposed, of course, in addition to education and skill development. The beneficiaries can be provided with the technical know-how of running the business, as well as a plan to take this small loan capital back from them in the form of monthly tiny cash installments.

Once the beneficiary has returned the entire amount, he will feel a sense of ownership in the business venture, he will end up with a running business which can be expanded further based on his personal acumen, the benefactor will get the amount back which can be utilised somewhere else. The habit of being dependent on aid for livelihoods should not penetrate a society that is already fraught with many other evils. As a nation, we have been roaming around the world with a begging bowl at the official level. Let’s build our society with massive micro-financing across the country to make our people self-reliant and prevent mendicity from becoming a national attribute.

M. M. A. Hossain
Karachi

An excerpt from
The Strangest Secret
by Earl Nightingale

George Bernard Shaw said, “People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don’t believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and if they can’t find them, they make them.”

Well, it’s pretty apparent, isn’t it? And every person who discovered this believed (for a while) that he was the first one to work it out. We become what we think about.

Conversely, the person who has no goal, who doesn’t know where he’s going, and whose thoughts must therefore be thoughts of confusion, anxiety and worry – his life becomes one of frustration, fear, anxiety and worry. And if he thinks about nothing… he becomes nothing.

How does it work? Why do we become what we think about? Well, I’ll tell you how it works, as far as we know. To do this, I want to tell you about a situation that parallels the human mind.

Suppose a farmer has some land, and it’s good, fertile land. The land gives the farmer a choice; he may plant in that land whatever he chooses. The land doesn’t care. It’s up to the farmer to make the decision.

We’re comparing the human mind with the land because the mind, like the land, doesn’t care what you plant in it. It will return what you plant, but it doesn’t care what you plant.

Now, let’s say that the farmer has two seeds in his hand- one is a seed of corn, the other is nightshade, a deadly poison. He digs two little holes in the earth and he plants both seeds-one corn, the other nightshade. He covers up the holes, waters and takes care of the land…and what will happen? Invariably, the land will return what was planted.

As it’s written in the Bible, “As ye sow, so shall ye reap.”

Remember the land doesn’t care. It will return poison in just as wonderful abundance as it will corn. So up come the two plants – one corn, one poison.

The human mind is far more fertile, far more incredible and mysterious than the land, but it works the same way. It doesn’t care what we plant…success…or failure. A concrete, worthwhile goal…or confusion, misunderstanding, fear, anxiety and so on. But what we plant must return to us.

You see, the human mind is the last great unexplored continent on earth. It contains riches beyond our wildest dreams. It will return anything we want to plant.

                                 Compiled by Mahjabeenn (New Delhi)