Rare earth magnets

[go4it]

I seem to have read somewhere that China is restricting the export or rare earth magnets causing the prices to rise.  Has anyone seen the prices going up yet?

[joestue]

http://cgi.ebay.com/24-Pc-N50-2x1x1-2-Neodymium-Block-Magnets-NdFeB-Strong-/370428253372
just as cheap as ever.

[fabricator]

I seem to remember that the restrictions will not go into effect until 2012 or something like that, there are rare earth mines in the US that have been making noises about re opening.

[DanG]

Actually there is only one North American source with ALL the metal salts required for rare-earth magnets and that was just recently discovered, there are other mines usually in ancient dried sea and lake beds but none with all the flavors required in one spot (meaning corporations have to share their toys)...  China with its great inland deserts is blessed with much more ore sources but the easy to process ones are well on their way to playing out.

[Tritium]

What I read was they are restricting "rare earth" exports NOT "finished" rare earth "goods" (magnets), however, North American Windpower magazine states that the big turbine manufacturers are building more and more PMG machines using rare earth magnets that could create a shortage for us as small turbine builders as more and more of the manufacturers leave production of type 3 turbines (doubly-fed induction generators) and produce type 4 turbines (PMG) demanding the rare earth resources (that we now enjoy) for their large projects.

Thurmond

[jeraklidis]

Why do you have to be racist against China HAHAHAHA....    if you have no clue where this is coming from no worries...

The Aussies can always help out... http://www.lynascorp.com/

USA F-YEAH just in case you didn't know...

[SparWeb]

The sad part is that if China raises the price, more business would turn to the Congo...  Can you imagine the bad PR if the media found out that the mags in a Prius came from sub-saharan Africa (and the workers dying by the hundreds). 

Sure the Aussies got some, and Canada does, too.  But no way to compete on price against the 3rd world pick-axes.

How tons of NEO goes in the trash every year because the yuppie fridge magnets go out of style?

[electrondady1]

my understanding is that 60% on neo magnet production goes into computer hard drives.
i was at a electronic recyling facility yesterday .
 they were wiling to sell me hard drives.
that are otherwise ground up .
but there was no accommodation to retrieve the magnets or magnet material.

[ghurd]

 they were wiling to sell me hard drives.

If they have more than desktop PCs, might try to get some of the big giant old 50M to 3G HDs, that are full size SCSI (5.25x3x8"?).
Some of those have some big, or curved, or big curved neos.  (remember the old #29's? Two per HD.)

Neo demand may decrease soon, with the advent of solid state HDs.
I have a feeling it won't be long before spinning HDs go wherever the 8-Track tapes went.

The new SD camera cards (SDXC) have a storage capacity of up to 2 terabytes (2,000 gigabytes), which is more than all the computers we ever owned... combined.
In fact its very close to double the combined total, but not quite.
G-

[DragonFly III]

My magnets actually came from those big old harddrives.  I found some that were almost 3/4" thick and 1.5" by 1".  the strength of these magnets are actually quite scarry.  I lifted my anvil whitch is an 18" section of railroad track off the ground.  The mags in my 16" rim alt also came from old harddrives.