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Rare Earth Elements in the United States

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Rare Earth Elements in the United States
Grading: content good topic for the course. I think it could have been strengthened with some more detail. How much is transported, how much is used in a windmill etc.. But you pulled together some interesting sources. 7.5
Format: okay 5
Spelling and grammar/style: The sentence structure and working is sometimes a problem. I have edited some of it to give you some ideas on how to improve it. Keep working on this. 2.5
References: Endnote credit (2), referencing is mostly okay. I would normally have the year with the author for the in text citation. (4)
Total score: 21

Rare Earth Elements in the United States Recently, international events have brought attentions to the rare-earth elements. Issues surrounding China’s embargo on rare-earth elements exports have raised major concerns among the heavy buying countries around the world that rely on these resources. China currently dominates the global rare-earth production and exports of the international marketstrade. Devastating impacts may arise if China places a long-term embargo on its rare-earth elements export. United States needs to explore the possibility of becoming self sufficient in the rare-earth elements production. The objective of this paper is to present a potential alternative for the United States, and to demonstrate possible negative impacts from depending solely on China 's supply of rare-earth elements. The rare-earth elements represent the fifteen elements on the periodic table from atomic number 57 to 71; lanthanum to lutetium. Despite of their category, these elements are not rare at all. They are quite abundant in fact; more so than silver and gold. The permanent magnetic properties of these elements revolutionized theis widely used in modern technology. Today, many high-tech industries depend heavily on these metals as hardware components. In the consumer electronics industries, rare-earth elements are used in personal computers, portable audio players (such as digital



References: Chameides, Bill. "Update: A Global Rare Earth Element Crisis on the Horizon?" Scientific American.August 2010 (2010). . Craig, James R., David J. Vaughan, and Brian J. Skinner. Earth Resources and the Environment. 4 ed. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2011. Print. Haxel, Gordon B., James B. Hedrick, and Greta J. Orris. "Rare Earth Elements - Critical Resources for High Technology". 2002. Fact Sheet 087-02. U.S. Geological Survey. . Nishikawa, Yoko. "China May Resume Rare Earth Exports Next Week." Scientific American.December 2010 (2010). . United States Government Accountability Office. Rare Earth Materials in the Defense Supply Chain. Washington, DC: United States Government, 2010. Print. Shahan, Zachary. "3x More Wind Energy Potential Than Previously Thought." Scientific American.March, 2010 (2010). . Uda, Tetsuya, K. Thomas Jacob, and Masahiro Hirasawa. "Technique for Enhanced Rare Earth Separation." Science Magazine 289.5488 (2000): 2326-29 pp. . Wee, Sui-Lee, and Ben Blanchard. "Eu Official Says to Press China on Rare Earths." Scientific American.December 2010 (2010). .

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