AT Rare Earth Elements DA - Michigan 7 2023 STARTER

Affirmative Answers
2ac No Link & Innovation Turn
Clean energy doesn’t require REE and scarcity spurs adaptions and alternatives including substitution and recycling
Lovins, 21 --- Adjunct Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Stanford University, chairman emeritus of RMI (December 8, 2021, Amory Lovins, “Reality Check: Greener, Friendlier Alternatives Exist for Rare Minerals in Batteries,” https://rmi.org/rmi-reality-check-greener-friendlier-alternatives-exist-for-rare-minerals-in-batteries/, JMP))
The Myth
For years, commentators have been handwringing about the extraction practices, environmental and social harms, and corporate ownership of mining operations that contribute to clean energy technology, with a focus on cobalt, rare earths, and other rare ingredients of the clean energy transition.
Much like governmental, intergovernmental, and private assessments of “critical materials,” these critiques pay far too little attention to how scarcity, usually signaled by price, elicits not only mineral exploration and mine development but also a powerful set of other and faster adaptations and alternatives like efficient use, substitution, and recycling.
A major contribution to this genre comes from a New York Times investigative series around cobalt in in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The Times’s informative reportage sheds important light on the geopolitical as much as the human-rights ramifications of clean energy.
But the Times series, like nearly all prior “critical materials” coverage, rests on a flawed premise: that cobalt is one of the “essential raw materials needed for the production of electric car batteries—and is now critical to retiring the combustion engine and weaning the world off climate-changing fossil fuels.”
The Reality
That cobalt is an essential raw material needed to produce electric car batteries is true for one class of car-battery chemistries, but others use little cobalt or none at all. Standard-range Tesla cars’ batteries use no cobalt. Battery leaders Samsung and Panasonic are designing out cobalt. The portfolio of these alternatives continues to improve and expand.
Several years ago, I wrote about “rare earths” (17 unusual chemical elements that are not geologically rare) in The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists and why they are not a substantial cause for concern in the transition to clean energy. For the past decade, commentators have warned (and stock speculators hyped) that China’s near-monopoly on supermagnet rare-earth elements could make the growing global shift to electric cars and wind turbines impossible—because their motors and generators, respectively, supposedly required supermagnets and hence rare earths. But that’s nonsense.
In the four years since that Bulletin article, one of the key substitutions it mentions—iron-nitride supermagnets using no rare earths but with comparable or potentially greater performance—entered the market. But even without that magnet innovation, everything that permanent-magnet motors and generators do can also be done as well or better using two other innovations that require no rare earth minerals: control software and power electronics made of silicon, the most abundant solid element on Earth.
Both kinds of magnet-free machines can do everything required not only in electric cars but also in wind turbines—functions often claimed to be impossible without tons of neodymium. That some wind turbines use rare-earth permanent-magnet generators does not mean others must. It’s better not to, and the word is spreading. Tesla’s car business was built on magnet-free induction motors. Its latest autos use the second magnet-free kind, synchronous reluctance motors, albeit spiced with small magnets. But most commentators on “blood minerals” are not experts on motors, solar cells, electricity, electronics, or even mining. They should talk to more people who are.
The Bottom Line
Accessible alternatives to “critical materials” can make excellent EV batteries, solar cells, and wind turbines. The US Department of Energy aims to eliminate cobalt in electric-car batteries by 2030; industry is doing it far faster. And a billion batteries in old consumer-electronics devices, many 30-fold richer in cobalt than the remaining cobalt-using car batteries, await recycling in clean and profitable American factories already being scaled up. Brains outpace mines. Let’s not let myths outpace truth.
--- 1ar Turn – Demand Spurs Innovations
Increased demand will spur market changes and innovations to address shortages
Osaka, 23 (February 2, 2023 at 6:30 a.m. EST, Shannon Osaka, “Minerals are crucial for electric cars and wind turbines. Some worry whether we have enough; Minerals are crucial for electric cars, wind turbines, and solar panels. Some worry whether the future supply can meet the rising demand,” https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2023/02/02/critical-minerals-run-out-shortage/, JMP))
Over 20 years ago, two geologists made a stark prediction in Scientific American: “Probably within 10 years,” they wrote, “global production of conventional oil will begin to decline.” This argument, which became known as “peak oil,” captured public attention for well over a decade, sparking worries that abundant reserves of oil would give way to scarcity, runs on gas stations and sky-high inflation.
Peak oil, however, never came to pass. U.S. oil production increased far beyond the peak oil predictions, thanks to the increased use of “fracking” and other production methods. The term faded out of use, and concerns about oil shifted from a fear of running out of oil to fears of runaway global warming.
Now, as the world begins to slowly shift to renewable energy sources, there is a new focus on the materials that will be required to build electric vehicles, solar panels, wind turbines and much more. According to the International Energy Agency, the average electric car requires six times the mineral inputs of a conventional gas-powered car; an offshore wind-turbine, meanwhile, requires nine times the mineral inputs of a typical gas-fired power plant.
So, will we run out?
There is no doubt that clean energy — that is, solar, wind, geothermal, nuclear and other sources that do not produce greenhouse gas emissions — requires more mineral inputs than power plants run on fossil fuels. The IEA estimates that if the world builds enough renewable energy to meet the goals established in the 2015 Paris Agreement, mineral demand will double or quadruple in the next 20 years. Countries will need copper for power and transmission lines, lithium for batteries, silicon for solar panels and zinc for wind turbines.
But there are a few reasons to think that — even as the world prepares to mine huge quantities of minerals — we won’t run out anytime soon.
Abigail Wulf, vice president of critical minerals for Securing America’s Future Energy (SAFE), a D.C.-based energy think tank, says that when minerals become valuable enough, people get motivated.
“It all has to do with economics,” she said. “If people get super desperate for these minerals, they will find very creative ways to find them.”
The first is that there is a difference between the available reserves of a mineral and the resources of that mineral. Reserves are the amount of a mineral that humans know they can efficiently and economically mine. Resources are a best guess of the total amount of that mineral available in the world — whether they are cost-effective to mine or not.
Take cobalt, for example — a key ingredient in the lithium-ion batteries that power electric cars, smartphones and other electronics. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, there are approximately 7.6 million tons of cobalt reserves worldwide. But the total cobalt resources far exceed this number: The USGS estimates that there are 25 million tons of cobalt resources available from the earth’s surface and 120 million tons of cobalt on the sea floor.
And those numbers tend to increase. Ten years ago, world cobalt reserves were estimated at 7.5 million tons and resources were only estimated to be about 15 million tons. As a commodity becomes more valuable, two things happen simultaneously: Reserves increase, as previously uneconomical resources become economical. And resources increase as well, as governments and companies put more effort into mapping and exploring minerals in the earth’s crust and on the sea floor. In 2012, the world’s lithium reserves sat at 13 million tons; now, they’re around 22 million tons. During that same period, the world’s estimated lithium resources more than doubled — from 40 to 88 million tons.
Companies are already touting the discoveries of new deposits of critical minerals. A Swedish state-owned mining company last month announced a deposit of 1 million tons of rare earth metals in the Lapland province. U.S. companies have also recently claimed discoveries of new deposits in Wyoming and Montana.
Demand signals result in more domestic production and refinement of REE
Easley, 23 (2/10/2023, Mikayla Easley, “SPECIAL REPORT: U.S. Begins Forging Rare Earth Supply Chain,” https://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/articles/2023/2/10/us-begins-forging-rare-earth-supply-chain, JMP))
MOUNTAIN PASS, California — From the smartphone in your pocket to magnets powering a growing number of electric vehicles on the road, rare earth elements are the foundational components for some of the most commonly used technologies today.
But over the last three decades, Beijing has held an iron grip on the world’s supply chain for rare earth elements such that nearly all materials — no matter where in the world they are mined — travel to China for refinement before they can be used in technologies.
Currently, the country controls nearly 60 percent of rare earth mining operations, more than 85 percent of processing capacity and more than 90 percent of permanent magnet production, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce.
It’s an issue that poses a vulnerability within the United States’ supply chain and poses potential national security risks, considering Washington’s strained relations with Beijing. As demand signals for technologies that rely on these elements are projected to skyrocket, both industry and government are investing in methods that aim to secure a domestic rare earth supply chain.
Despite being labeled as “rare,” the 17 different elements known as rare earths are relatively abundant in the Earth’s crust. The Biden administration considers them one of the strategic and critical materials and minerals for their use in several modern commercial and defense technologies — including smartphones, medical equipment and highly specialized magnets used in electric vehicles, jet fighters and drones.
But since the chemical properties of rare earth elements are nearly indistinguishable from one another, individually separating and refining them so they can be used to make magnets and other technologies is a complex process, said Linda Chrisey, program manager at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.
“Two different rare earth elements may be fractions of an angstrom different in diameter — that means it’s very difficult to separate using physical means. The processes that are used right now … can be 100 steps,” Chrisey said, also noting that the procedure can be very expensive and environmentally hazardous due to the chemicals used to separate and purify the metals.
“These are all reasons why it has been difficult to sustain that kind of operation in the United States,” she added.
However, on top of a mountain in the Mojave Desert at the United States’ largest rare earth mine, MP Materials is trying to reverse that trend.
With the scale and capability of their facilities, MP Materials is trying to become a “magnet champion” in the Western Hemisphere, said Matt Sloustcher, MP Materials’ senior vice president of communications and policy.
“What we’re trying to do is build a full magnetic supply chain, and we want to be able to make all the necessary materials and recycle the necessary materials to have that magnetic supply chain,” he said.
Since acquiring the Mountain Pass mine in 2017, MP Materials has revitalized the site’s production of rare earth elements and produces a mixture of rare earth concentrate that contributes around 15 percent of the rare earth minerals consumed each year, according to the United States Geological Survey.
And soon, MP Materials will no longer have to ship this mixture overseas to China for the lengthy process of separating and refining the rare earth elements. After two years of construction, the company announced in November that it is on the cusp of opening the first rare earth refinement facility within the United States at the Mountain Pass facility.
First it must commission assets for the new facility for the second stage of production, which is a process of stress testing the facility’s equipment to ensure it is performing at the rate it was designed for, Sloustcher said during a tour of the ongoing construction at the Mountain Pass mine. The procedure will unfold over the course of 2023, he added.
“We’re months away from producing refined products,” he said. “It’s really exciting.”
The second stage of production starts with a process of drying, roasting, leaching and purifying the mixture of rare earth concentrate, he explained. Then, the rare earths are fed into one of several towering tanks located in a building longer than an American football field. In these vats, a solvent extraction process separates the mixture into individual rare earth oxides, he said.
Although it’s just one refinement facility competing against multiple in China, its opening marks a crucial step in the United States’ effort to address its vulnerable rare earth supply chain. In 2020, the Department of Defense invested $10 million into the $200 million project, according to a Pentagon press release.
MP Materials will focus on refining a compound of neodymium and praseodymium — one of the most common materials used to make rare earth magnets — as well as lanthanum and cerium, Sloustcher noted. These elements are classified as “light rare earths.”
The government is also pushing for domestic production of “heavy rare earths,” which are more difficult to refine but also used to make more specialized magnets. For example, heavy rare earths terbium and dysprosium are needed to make rare earth permanent magnets that can operate in high temperatures, while samarium is used to produce samarium-cobalt magnets found in aerospace and defense applications.
“If you don’t have separated rare earths domestically, there’s a point of failure in the supply chain for magnets,” he said.
The Defense Department awarded MP Materials a $35 million contract in February 2022 to build a facility specifically designed to process heavy rare earth elements at the Mountain Pass mine. Sloustcher said the heavy rare earths will be refined in a different building, adding that the project is just getting started.
To fully domesticate the magnet supply chain, MP Materials also began construction on the United States’ first rare earth magnetics factory in April 2022. Located in Fort Worth, Texas, the facility will be able to annually produce around 1,000 tons of neodymium-iron-boron magnets from rare earth elements mined and refined at the Mountain Pass facilities, according to the company.
Because the defense market accounts for just a fraction of the United States’ total demand for rare earths — around five percent — the company is looking to address needs within the commercial industry first, Sloustcher noted.
--- 1ar No Link – Substitutes
Innovations in magnet design can reduce or eliminate REE demand
Serpell, et. al, 21 --- a research associate at the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy (May 2021, Oscar Serpell, Benjamin Paren - a Ph.D. student in the department of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania, Wan-Yi Chu - assistant professor at Mills College in Oakland, California and a former postdoctoral researcher in the Goldberg Group, located in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania, “RARE EARTH ELEMENTS: A RESOURCE CONSTRAINT OF THE ENERGY TRANSITION,” https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/KCEP-Rare-Earth-Elements.pdf, JMP))
MANAGING DEMAND
While companies including Siemens Gamesa and Tesla are making a strong case for the added efficiency and performance of permanent magnets, minor efficiency and performance losses may be an acceptable tradeoff for avoiding stiff competition over a globally limited resource (Siemens Gamesa, n.d.; Desai 2018). The case of rare earth elements suggests that the newest or objectively “best” technological solution may not always be the most practical or sustainable solution.
Because environmental externalities are, for the most part, not priced appropriately, technologies are typically only assessed according to their production cost and performance. By thinking ahead to the resource demands of the energy transition, one can recognize the value and importance of simple technologies with little dependence on scarce or difficult to secure resources, even if that sustainability comes with trade-offs to price or performance.
One pathway to demand reduction is to increase the efficiency of REE use within existing magnet designs. Through innovations in material composition and the production processes, some manufacturers have been able to synthesize magnets with similar strengths to current REE magnets, but with much lower concentrations of REEs (Toyota 2018). Permanent magnets can also be made entirely without REEs, but these designs typically exhibit additional drawbacks (Widmer 2015).
Another option is to further develop and encourage the use of motors and generator technologies that do not utilize permanent magnets. Gearbox wind turbines featuring induction generators use almost no REEs. The main drawback of this design is the need for mechanical gearboxes to speed up the relatively slow rotations of the turbine rotor. These gearboxes wear out over time and require regular maintenance. Electric vehicle motors can also be made using induction designs that require little or no REEs, albeit with lower efficiencies.
Despite these drawbacks, generators and motors based on electromagnetic induction have been in use for decades and are still generally cheaper than technologies utilizing REEs (Widmer 2015). The current wind capacity in the U.S. is predominantly supported by induction generators and most of the earlier Tesla models (Roadster, Model S, and Model X) run on induction motors. Further technological developments in these areas or using hybrid designs that incorporate small amounts of REEs to increase efficiencies can help manage the overall demand of REEs.
Substitutes are being developed
Cho, 23 (APRIL 5, 2023, Renee, “The Energy Transition Will Need More Rare Earth Elements. Can We Secure Them Sustainably?” https://news.climate.columbia.edu/2023/04/05/the-energy-transition-will-need-more-rare-earth-elements-can-we-secure-them-sustainably/, JMP))
Substituting materials
One strategy to reduce the demand for rare earth elements is for manufacturers and product designers to engineer products that use less or no rare earth elements, or to replace rare earth elements with new or different materials. For example, BMW and Renault have made some of their EVs without rare earth elements. While this may make batteries less powerful, cars that are mainly driven in cities may not need as long a battery life. Recently Tesla announced that its next generation of electric motors would use no rare earth elements. Moreover, since 2017, the company has reduced its use of heavy rare earths in its Model 3s by 25 percent.
Scientists at Northeastern University are developing a substitute material for rare earth magnets called tetrataenite. Tetrataenite is only found i

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