September 30, 2014 The Pentagon and the defense industry are rapidly expanding the use of 3D printing to make parts and tools for more sophisticated military equipment.

The technology—which makes manufacturing more agile and wastes very little material—is already being used aboard the USS Essex, a U.S.Navy amphibious assault ship.

“The crew has printed everything from plastic syringes to oil tank caps, to the silhouettes of planes that are used on the mock-up of the flight deck to keep the flight deck organized,” Adm. James “Sandy” Winnefeld, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Monday at the Concordia Summit in New York.

Read more at: http://www.nationaljournal.com/defense/the-defense-industry-is-expanding-the-use-of-3d-printing-20140930

NASA’s Swift Mission Observes Mega Flares from a Mini Star | NASA.

LONDON (Alliance News) – Rare Earth Minerals PLC Tuesday said Western Lithium USA Corp has signed a distribution deal via a subsidiary.

Hectatone Inc, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Western Lithium, in which Rare Earth owns a 3% stake, has signed a distribution deal with Houston, Texas-based Raw Materials Corp to sell its Hectatone products in five US states.

“Rare Earth is pleased with its investment in Western Lithium and the significant progress that Western Lithium has made over the past few months,” said David Lenigas, chairman of Rare Earth.

Rare Earth shares were up 4.7% to 1.44 pence on Tuesday.

Source: http://www.lse.co.uk/AllNews.asp?code=tb0k3i9g&headline=Rare_Earth_Says_Western_Lithium_Subsidiary_Signs_Distribution_Deal

(Reuters) – Indonesia’s coal exports are expected to fall by between 15 and 20 percent in October from September and could decline 5 percent this year as firms scramble to obtain government export permits to comply with a new rule due to come into effect on Oct. 1.

Read more at: http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/09/30/indonesia-coal-exports-idUKL3N0RV3H320140930

JAKARTA/SYDNEY, Sept 30 (Reuters) – Newmont Mining Corp sent out its first copper concentrate shipment from Indonesia this week that ended a nine-month hiatus, highlighting a ramp up in copper mine supply that is expected to tip the market into surplus this year.

Read more at: http://af.reuters.com/article/commoditiesNews/idAFL3N0RV1VI20140930

SAO PAULO, Sept 29 (Reuters) – Vale SA, the world’s largest producer of iron ore, proposed to board members a $2.1 billion dividend payout, the second this year, according to a securities filing on Monday.

Should the board of directors approve the payment, dividends to shareholders will total $4.2 billion this year. The company had previously approved a first installment of $2.1 billion. (Reporting by Guillermo Parra-Bernal; Editing by David Gregorio)

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/09/29/vale-sa-dividends-installment-idUSL2N0RU2LK20140929

Metalloinvest Holding Co. (METIN), the Russian iron-ore producer partly owned by billionaire Alisher Usmanov, expects Chinese demand to spur a rebound in prices from a five-year low by December.

“We think prices may start to recover by the end of this year, partly due to the increasing seasonal demand from China,” Chief Executive Officer Andrey Varichev said in a Sept. 26 interview in Moscow. “We think the level of price balance should be 20 percent to 25 percent higher than the current.”

Read more at: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2014-09-29/russia-s-largest-iron-ore-miner-sees-prices-recovering-this-year

Scientists at Western University have discovered that a small molecule created with just 144 atoms of gold can increase solar cell performance by more than 10 per cent. These findings, published recently by the high-impact journal Nanoscale, represent a game-changing innovation that holds the potential to take solar power mainstream and dramatically decrease the world’s dependence on traditional, resource-based sources of energy, says Giovanni Fanchini from Western’s Faculty of Science.

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2014-09-scientists-revolutionize-solar-power-gold.html#jCp

“Currently, the material options to produce highly wear-resistant parts through additive manufacturing are limited” said Harald Lemke, NanoSteel’s General Manager of Engineered Powders. “By extending the reach of steel into markets currently served by Nano-grained Tungsten Carbide-Cobalt (WC-Co), ceramics, and other non-ferrous metal matrix metal composites, we have the potential to generate cost-efficient wear parts to serve the tooling, mining, energy, and transportation industries in applications such as pumps, bearings, and cutting tools.”

Read more at: http://3dprint.com/16720/nanosteel-3d-print-steel/