MMTA

A U.S company has introduced its first 3D-printed titanium hip implant, the new Redapt revision acetabular fully porous cup with Conceloc technology. To support bone growth, the 3D manufacturing process…

Dear Reader It may not be easy to imagine living in a town where almost every person of working age has lost their job – but this is how it…

The future of the United Kingdom in the EU will be put to the vote in a referendum on the 23rd June. With the campaigns on both sides of the debate becoming increasingly hostile….

The sword is a weapon full of imagery – of great armies and knights – but it also parallels the metallurgical developments that made its use possible. Its invention, the…

A rather neglected element on the Association’s Periodic Table, calcium is in fact classed as a minor metal. Say ‘calcium’ and a metallic substance does not immediately spring to mind,…

By Tom Butcher In addition to its base metal, oil and other natural resources, Brazil has considerable wealth in a variety of minor metals. Brazil has been having a very…

DG GROWTH’s recent by-product metal recovery conference in Brussels was host to widely diverse views on the technology and policy challenges of increasing the availability of a range of materials…

C P Broadbent (Wardell Armstrong), R Seltmann (Natural History Museum), J Drielsma (Euromines), W Reimer (Geokompetenzzentrum Freiberg), M Cox (MMTA) Because there is no exploration and little process technology development…

Mining.com recently reported that China is increasing its attempts to restrict illegal mining and export of rare earths. To do this, it is setting up a system to certify the…

Clean Energy Runs on Magnets was last modified: December 6th, 2016 by MMTA

The COP 21 negotiations concluded in December in Paris with an un-paralleled global deal to tackle climate change. As well as clearly setting out a limit to the planet’s temperature…

The Critical Raw Materials Alliance recently held its bi-annual meeting in Brussels. The Alliance met with the consultants TNO, who are tasked with completing the new CRM list for 2017.…

In his book, The Last Sorcerers, Richard Morris charts the path from alchemy to the periodic table. He describes how scientists and philosophers have tried for well over two thousand…

Could this be the most popular mine in the world? Who would be a miner? If your name happens to be Glencore, Anglo, BHP, Vedanta, Rio, you might be wondering…

Four new elements have been added to the periodic table, finally completing the table’s seventh row. The elements, discovered by scientists in Japan, Russia and America, are the first to…

Could electric vehicles be one solution to energy storage? Maria Cox, MMTA What if the electricity grid were to use the batteries in the growing numbers of electric vehicles to…

Continuing with the mobile phone theme, and after the previous pages’ infographics on the raw materials found in mobile devices, it is pertinent to talk about the variety and complexity…

FAME is a transnational research and innovation project to identify economically viable, technology to exploit European ore deposits that are often relatively small in tonnage terms. Technologies will be optimised…

By Tamara Alliot In recent years, Mexico has steadily been climbing the ranks to become a global player in the Aerospace and Defence (A&D) industry.  Mexico has some unique attributes…

In 2008 I travelled to Mufulira in Zambia for the first time. After 30 years of knowing the name it was good to be there. As MMTA members know, it…

Hypersonic travel that could propel people from London to Sydney in just two hours is one step closer to reality, following a successful test. The project, which saw US and Australian military scientists combine resources, is on track to launch in 2018….

Tom Butcher, Consultant A Bit of Background Iran has lived with sanctions for many years now.  And still does. The first hefty set of sanctions was unilaterally imposed upon the…

Dear Members Snowzilla, snowmageddon, snowpocalypse… call it what you will, we had a fair smattering of the stuff recently (together with some strong cold winds). Indeed, just over the way…

Dear Members So, finally, Cruz has thrown in the towel.  Kasich too. Donald Trump is now the sole candidate in the race for the Republican nomination. Or is it even…

By Tom Butcher, Independent Consultant Dear Members Well, much has happened since I last wrote you back in May. Amongst other things, we’ve had: Brexit, Donald Trump prevailing, Cameron resigning,…

Dear Members From feet of snow this time in January, I believe that today, Friday, we are going to have temperatures in the low 70s Fahrenheit. We may also have…

Dear Members Well, it’s the shortest day of the year soon; winter – supposedly. But it was already some 62°F at 05.45 this morning.  Another record? Let’s see how Paris…

Following the Crucible’s recent publication of responses to MMTA Members’ questions to the metals press, the following Letter to the Editor has been received. Sir, Please allow me to look…

As the proud owner of my very own personalised Liquidmetal USB stick, made back in 2008, I was thrilled to hear this extraordinary material mentioned at the MMTA’s recent conference.…

The humble bicycle, popular since… well that’s quite a disputed date, but from the early 1800s, the ancestors of the modern-day bicycle were certainly in use. One prominent version was the Draisienne….

From the A Bomb to Hinkley Point and Beyond — Minor Metals in Nuclear James Walsh, MMTA Nuclear power has certainly had its up and downs over the last 70…

The world’s population is growing quickly; people are moving to urban centres, and raw material demand is expected to increase three-fold by 2050. Government and business need to face these…

Welcome to James Walsh... Goodbye to Tamara Alliot As many of you will know, Tamara will be on maternity leave from the end of July. I am very pleased to…

The MMTA is pleased to welcome Holman Fenwick Willan as a new Member. Holman Fenwick Willan (HFW) is an international law firm with 450 lawyers across the world. We have…

UK TRANSPARENCY IN SUPPLY CHAINS REQUIREMENTS COME INTO FORCE Why is this relevant for an MMTA Member or Associate? Do you have a global turnover of at least £36 million?…

Will the new EU Union Customs Code finally bring centralized clearance? The EU customs union is central to the EU dream of a common and efficient market. Ideally, whether your…

What lies ahead for the metal markets in 2016? Everything you need to get started... 2015 was a tough year for the global metals industry with the collapse in global…

The Wider Picture James Peer, MMTA Chairman, opened the MMTA’s recent International Minor Metals Conference in Amsterdam by thanking the event’s sponsors: Platinum Sponsor, C Steinweg Group, and Silver Sponsors:…

Dr. Ing. Martin Tauber, Industry Consultant, President Critical Raw Materials (CRM) Alliance, Member of International Magnesium  Association (IMA) EU Committee Contact martintauber3120@gmail.com Although magnesium still has a strong position in…

2015 was a big year for the MMTA in North America, with 6 of the 11 new Members hailing from the region.  In addition to growing numbers, our programming also…

By Gina Evangelidis The European solar industry grew by 15% in 2015, continuing Europe’s reign as the chief continent for solar powered energy. Germany is currently the biggest player in…

Last year, Rotterdam based shipbroking firm Blue Ocean Brokers, a subsidiary of MMTA-Member Odin Warehousing & Logistics (OWL), launched a revolutionary idea to charge a flat brokerage fee of EUR…

The Coming Radical Change in Mining Practice Dr Simon Michaux, Senior Research Officer, GeMMe University of Liege presents a personal perspective on the environmental impact of resource consumption. I used…

REACH—no change in sight to 2018 deadline requirements Maria Cox, MMTA The UK’s decision on 23 June to leave the EU has created some concern about the status of REACH,…

Conflict Minerals Chinese Chamber of Commerce for Metals, Minerals and Chemicals Implements OECD  Responsible Mineral The OECD and the Chinese Chamber of Commerce of Minerals, Metals and Chemicals Exporters (CCCMC)…

This year’s conference has a line-up of exceptional speakers; below Professor Sybrand van der Zwaag from the Novel Aerospace Materials Group  (www.novam.lr.tudelft.nl), at the Faculty of Aerospace Engineering, TU Delft,…

As discussions on the effectiveness of Dodd-Frank continue, the EU’s Conflict Minerals Regulation rumble on, and with the recent introduction of the Modern Slavery Act in the UK (see the…

In 2015, an estimated 62% of global tantalum supply came from Africa, 45% of it from Central Africa, mainly from Rwanda and the DRC. That was not the case in the past and it may not be the case in future….

Anthony Lipmann in conversation with Derek Raphael of Derek Raphael & Co. For this inaugural ‘Tea with the MMTA’ interview, I am in a state of some anxiety in case…

Two Members of the MMTA’s Insurance Task Force broached the very current and difficult topic of terrorism from an insurance perspective. The Cost of Terrorism In addition to the tragic…

Tamara Alliot, MMTA Its mission is to provide all makers with a creative home in which to innovate, contemplate and understand all aspects of materials and an inspiring place to…

View the recent ICMM report on Enhancing mining’s contribution to the Zambian economy and society. Part of the Mining: Partnerships for Development – Spotlight series 18 In 2008, the MMTA initiated…

The latest product in a long tradition - the search for a perfect blue pigment – is about to reach the market. A new blue pigment, which was discovered in…

The mining and metals industry has an image problem. Dirty, corrupt and exploitative are words that may spring to mind in certain parts of the world. Energy intensive and polluting are probably used even more widely. However, without the mining of ores and their subsequent processing into metals, we would have no buildings, infrastructure, consumer products (not to mention anything even vaguely high-tech), we would literally still be stuck in the Stone Age.

Although only 4 metres (13 feet) long, Thor, Airbus’ first 3D printed drone, was recently on display at the International Aerospace Exhibition in Berlin. THOR stands for ‘Test of High-tech…

According to Mike Dash, author of Tulipomania, The Story of the World’s Most Coveted Flower, “ In around 1624, the Amsterdam man who owned the only dozen specimens [of a…

By Tamra Alliot Vanadium may be seeking a leading position in the renewable energy revolution. The tricky issue of energy storage could be solved with vanadium redox flow batteries (RFBs).…

Visual Capitalist produces some fantastic infographics, and they kindly gave the Crucible permission to reproduce them. After the popularity of ‘What’s in an iPhone 6’, we’re getting inside another consumer of minor metals….

Visual Capitalist produces some fanstastic infographics, and they kindly gave the Crucible permission to reproduce them.  The image  below shows ‘What’s inside an iPhone 6’ and as you can see…

The American Chemistry Council (ACC) wants to work with its   Canadian counterparts to promote a “North American model” of regulation to other countries considering enhancing their chemicals management systems. Speaking…