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America has a tungsten problem

noleary.com

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Re: America has a tungsten problem

#131

Post by toss1 »

terminalshort wrote: post #110
throwway120385 wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having seen some former open pit mines I'm not entirely sure the environmental review is "ridiculous." One of them was basically a huge open pit full of acid.

Mine the metal or do without the tech that uses it. You have to choose. Years of environmental review do not help.

The environmental review WILL help if it is used to adjust the mining techniques so they don't destroy everything nearby to do the work, or even if it jist creates a reclamation / restoration plan (and yes, factor that into the price, it's trivial). Taking too long is a problem.

Re: America has a tungsten problem

#132

Post by Quarrel »

This is not the first time that this has been a problem.

In WW2 all sides needed more tungsten, hence: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolfram_Crisis

As a side note, Tungsten is a Swedish word ("heavy stone"). It was first "discovered" by a Swede, and they called it Tungsten. Its atomic symbol is W, for wolfram, the German word for it, which even the Swede's use. I find it mildly amusing. (it is to do with tungsten rich ores and the name of the ores that had been known about for a while)

Re: America has a tungsten problem

#133

Post by qwertox »

dfee wrote: post #33
themanmaran wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Not an expert or a nefarious actor If it helps, I know @noleary and can confirm this is a true statement!

isn't that what a second non-expert or nefarious actor would say, though? :p

we'll let it slip, this one time.

Re: America has a tungsten problem

#134

Post by Octoth0rpe »

mschuster91 wrote: post #130
terminalshort wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The worst part is that most of number 3 is self imposed by the ridiculous amount of environmental review and litigation delays surrounding that process. Sure, cost of labor is some of it, but really it's not very much in comparison.

> The worst part is that most of number 3 is self imposed by the ridiculous amount of environmental review and litigation delays surrounding that process. Because, surprise, we do not want more Superfund sites . Like, the Silicon Valley is the US' biggest cluster of Superfund sites by far. At the same time, it is very convenient that there are lots of piss poor countries that have very difficult/dirty to mine resourc…

> Like, the Silicon Valley is the US' biggest cluster of Superfund sites by far

Source? My understanding was that NJ was the worse.

Wikipedia shows 94 SF sites in CA: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Superfund_sites_in_Cal...

And 115 in NJ: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Superfund_sites_in_New...

And of course, CA is _much much_ larger. If we look at the entire bos/wash corridor, it's huuugely than CA.

Re: America has a tungsten problem

#135

Post by strangegecko »

tehjoker wrote: post #57
a2tech wrote: post #15

This website has no author attribution and this is the only article on it. I would be very suspicious of its claims (not that I disagree with them, just that unattributed works on brand new websites are not ALWAYS the most trustworthy). The United States has exported the dirtiest businesses internationally for quite a few years (raw mineral extraction is a dirty, nasty business, with slim margins). Now that China has…

> Now that China has become more adversarial Just a nitpick, but it is the reverse, the United States has become more adversarial. China isn't kidnapping heads of state.

They've both become more adversarial. China has been using economic blackmail to advance political goals for a long time (e.g. wrt Japan and Taiwan and SEA). They also continue to expand military based in the SCS that don't belong there, hold exercises to simulate blockades outside of China. Etc.

Re: America has a tungsten problem

#136

Post by danielodievich »

My fireplace has 1" cubes of tungsten, aluminum, and magnesium, plus a cube of selenite and quartzy-style synthetic prism, all arranged on little stands really close to the floor, so reachable by children. Neighbor 2.5 year old last year was very put out when he couldn't lift the W cube. It is really a lot of fun to hold. Dropping it on one's foot is ill-advised, particularly if you are 2.5 years old.

Re: America has a tungsten problem

#137

Post by lightedman »

ricksunny wrote: post #114
dwd wrote: post #101

They're working on it. Invested in an Australian tungsten miner late last year. Has an operating profitable mine in Spain and active Government support to restart the large Mt Carbine mine in Queensland. Antimony is another critical mineral. A number of smallcap Antimony/Tungsten miners are exploring potential deposits in Idaho and Tennessee and Australia, but timelines are long.

That's cool - I'd imagine 'invested in a mining concern' is rare on the spectrum of HNers' resumes. May I ask how did you come to be confident enough to risk capital on something that's not typically within the average tech person's familiarity space? Asking b/c I would like to be able to develop such confidence if I could credibly (even just to myself) do so.

"I'd imagine 'invested in a mining concern' is rare on the spectrum of HNers' resumes."

You'd be surprised how many of us actually have a mining claim or two ;)

Re: America has a tungsten problem

#138

Post by 55555 »

ricksunny wrote: post #114
dwd wrote: post #101

They're working on it. Invested in an Australian tungsten miner late last year. Has an operating profitable mine in Spain and active Government support to restart the large Mt Carbine mine in Queensland. Antimony is another critical mineral. A number of smallcap Antimony/Tungsten miners are exploring potential deposits in Idaho and Tennessee and Australia, but timelines are long.

That's cool - I'd imagine 'invested in a mining concern' is rare on the spectrum of HNers' resumes. May I ask how did you come to be confident enough to risk capital on something that's not typically within the average tech person's familiarity space? Asking b/c I would like to be able to develop such confidence if I could credibly (even just to myself) do so.

Actually, if you follow stock tip accounts on X, investing in Australian commodity miners is like the current hot trend, for a few weeks already.

This is not to assume that the parent commenter invested for this reason.

Re: America has a tungsten problem

#139

Post by carshodev »

stevenwoo wrote: post #28
noleary wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hey, I wrote the article. This is my personal website that I wrote mostly over the weekend. I went down a rabbit hole reading about metals and mining and just thought it was interesting. Not an expert or a nefarious actor, unfortunately.

The formatting of the website on iOS safari moves the left margin off screen so I could not read all of your essay. But you may enjoy reading Material World by Conroy based on what I could read, he does not cover Tungsten.

I also can recommend material world. Its a great look at how mining and material production works worldwide, I also do not think it covers Tungsten.

Re: America has a tungsten problem

#140

Post by anigbrowl »

Counterpoint: Tungsten is about $1100/ton, so if demand averages 10k tons/year the annual US spend is about $10-12 million. That's peanuts in economic terms. If relations with China deteriorate the US could just set up a front company in some third country, buy tungsten, and re-export it.
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