Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr. Wyndham
I've been reading up (what I can in the past 45 minutes). Apparently, you can add rare earth metals into the alloy formula, and this changes the properties of (among other things) the ignition temperature of the material. Since Al-Mg alloys don't burn at the same temperatures as pure Mg to begin with...Alloys with the intent of high-temperature applications can be formed by using this technique.
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The same mindset that pushed us into these materials to stop polluting the air with CO2 are the same ones who have closed down almost all of the U.S. mines that were extracting rare earth metals.
The vast majority of rare earths are now being mined by Chinese firms, who control the price because they have the market cornered.
This topic contains my daily recommended allowance of irony.