[ExI] not that rare earth (part 2 of at least 2)

[Keith Henson]

On Fri, Oct 31, 2025 at 9:00 PM <spike at rainier66.com> wrote:
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Keith Henson <hkeithhenson at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [ExI] not that rare earth (part 2 of at least 2)
>
> If you want to understand this topic, read this
>
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rare-earth_element
>
> It is long but fairly comprehensive.
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> Keith
>
> OK cool thx Keith.
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> An EV uses 1 to 2 kg.  The spot price for neodymium is 150 bucks a kg, up from 75 kg seven years ago.
>
> So an additional 75 to 150 bucks per non-Musk EV.  Elon mandated those be eliminated, so Tesla doesn't use them.
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> What the Wiki article doesn't say is what happens if we substitute molybdenum for the neodymium,  which is what I think Tesla did: they are using MoFeB magnets.  They aren't saying how they did it.  Samarium is cheap, even now.  I am not sure why.  Perhaps it's a byproduct of something else.
>
> Wind turbines: those use a lot of material, 600 kg of REEs per turbine.  So those are effected a lot.  But the real cost of wind energy is in power storage anyway.

I am not sure you can make that case for California.

https://www.caiso.com/todays-outlook/supply#section-current

Peak wind is around a GW, solar is around 20 times that much.

Not sure that Mo makes good magnets.  Never heard of it being used for
that.  But what do I know?

Keith

  In any case, if the turbines give away a half a percent in
efficiency, that surely wouldn't be a showstopper.  They have bigger
worries: the environmentalists might try to destroy them to save
birds.
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> Regarding my post on fire-resistant power storage, I am surprised no one checked my estimates.
>
> spike
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