A conversation on domestic supply of Rare Earth Elements

Join us for a informal conversation about potential domestic supplies of Rare Earth Elements in the U.S, with Harlan Jacobs. And no, it is not about mining...

Harlan Jacobs, is an officer and board member of the Swedish American Chamber of Commerce in Minnesota.

He is a business development consultant who has been doing business in Sweden since the year 2000 when he assisted Vattenfall AB with an assessment of its plans to develop an incubator program in the Dalarna Region of Sweden.

With more than fifty year business career that includes selling a high tech start up company to Dow Chemical for a 100 to 1 return on investment over an eight year period back in 1985.

His familiarity with the coal fired electric utility operations of Vattenfall back then now comes full circle as one of his clients is developing an innovative-likely patentable- process for recovering Rare Earth Elements (REEs) from coal fines/coal fly ash/and other byproducts resulting from burning coal in large scale operations.

"There is an urgent need to wean our dependence from hostile foreign powers for the needs of both the US and its NATO allies for the REEs needed for applications from the motors used to propel electric vehicles to the advanced semiconductor chips that are used to make mission critical electronics such as night vision goggles."

Harlan continues: There may be attractive business opportunity for harvesting REEs from the coal byproducts stored throughout all Nordic and Baltic nations and then providing them to industries critical to the defense and economic needs of the entire EU region.

And here in both Arizona and throughout the United States there may be attractive business opportunities to monetize the waste piles of coal byproducts. The large scale chip manufacturing operations being established here in Arizona will need a secure supply chain of REEs.

What better way to provide them with their needs for REEs than from the abundant supply of coal burning residues that have been accumulated over many decades in many of the western states.

Note: This is a non-hosted event