Innovative new technologies, from components like batteries to systems such as airplanes, demand the specific properties of a growing number of rare metals used in complex combinations and in increasingly refined amounts. Technology now relies on an entirely new set of critical materials, namely rare metals, for products manufactured today that are very different from those produced just twenty years ago.
While the world is not running out of rare metals, developing new supply lines can take a decade or more. Advanced economies are approaching a point where the speed of development and number of new devices will outpace the ability to secure the materials this new industrial age requires. As new devices proliferate, advanced countries like the United States and Japan are linking their economic futures to rare metals, with production often dominated by one mine or one country.
On November 30, 2016, Sasakawa USA partnered with the Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Center at Stanford University to hold a conference to discuss and lay out the challenges, opportunities, and limitations of creating resilient supplies of critical materials. The event included expert roundtables on specific aspects of bringing rare metals from production to product. This was the first conference to bring together companies from the entire rare metal supply chain, including experts and officials from both Japan and the United States, countries that both rely on the entire spectrum of these resources for manufacturing.
This conference served as the basis for a Sasakawa USA report released in March 2017. Click here to read the full report.
Presentations
• Evaluating Criticality, Thomas E. Graedel
• Securing Critical Resources in a New Green and Industrial Era, John Thompson
• Identifying Resource Insecurity, Yuko Yasunaga
Video
This conference was recorded on video and archived courtesy of Shorenstein APARC. View the full event in the playlist below, with videos separated by panel.
Teaser
In the below video, Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) addresses those who attended the conference and explains Congressional efforts to improve mineral security in the United States. Since joining the Senate in 2002, Senator Murkowski has been a leader on the issue of critical resources as well as energy issues. She serves as Chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee as well as Chairman of the Appropriations Subcommittee on the Interior and Environment.
Speakers
• Admiral Dennis C. Blair (USN, ret.), Chairman and CEO, Sasakawa USA
• David Abraham, Director, Technology, Rare, and Electronic Materials Center
• Saleem Ali, Professor of Sustainable Resources, University of Queensland
• Geoff Bedford, CEO, Neo Performance Materials, former CEO, Molycorp
• Daniel Bob, Senior Fellow, Sasakawa USA
• Steve Conlin, President, ICD Alloys and Metals
• Dr. Richard Dasher, Director, U.S.-Asia Technology Management Center, Stanford University
• Luke Erceg, Executive Chairman, DryLet
• Dr. Thomas Graedel, Professor Emeritus of Industrial Ecology, Yale University
• Takeo Hoshi, Director, Japan Program, Shorenstein, Asia-Pacific Research Center (APARC)
• Nick Kotaki, Managing Director, Material Trading Co.
• Elert Loois, Managing Partner, HTM Advisory
• Simon Moores, CEO, Benchmark Intelligence
• Senator Lisa Murkowski, Chairman, Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee
• Toru Okabe, Professor of Rare Metals, The University of Tokyo Institute of Industrial Science
• Reinhold Schindler, Director, Magnets and Rare Earths, Siemens
• Michael Silver, CEO, American Elements
• Daniel Sneider, Associate Director, Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center
• Martin Steurner, Economist, Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas
• Yutaka Tai, Director of Material and Nanotechnology, New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO)
• John Thompson, Professor of Environment, Cornell University
• Yuuko Yasunaga, Director of Natural Resources, Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI)
Photos
