At the Conference

Last week Randy finally convinced me to attend the Magnetics 2013 conference in Orlando. I had been on the fence about going, mostly because I thought I had left that part of my life so far behind me that I really did not belong in this environment. However, within minutes of arriving at the hotel Wednesday I was warmly hailed by two of my former coworkers (I would see almost a dozen over the next few days!). Then later that afternoon I was greeted by an engineering manager for a large OEM that purchases a lot of magnets. They were a customer of my former employer over ten years ago, and he remembered me as the "person who taught him how to magnetize magnets." I was surprised by this, that even after ten years I still existed in some way in this industry.



Over the course of the next two days I sat through several presentations, listening to different perspectives on the rare earth mining and magnet situations. I had hoped for some earth-shattering announcements, but that didn't happen. Still I learned quite a bit.

Some of my notes after the jump

• There were presentations concerning the rare earth supply from market consultants, as well as touched on by at least one Molycorp employee. For the longest time, Molycorp has been selling a mine-to-magnet strategy, with the magnet end coming from their acquisition of MQI and the joint venture in Japan. One step in this supply chain, the conversion of oxides to metals, though is trick. Members of a panel discussion who were not Molycorp employees indicated this would not be performed in the US (on the Molycorp website the facilities listed for this step are in Arizona and Estonia). A Molycorp representative at the conference gave a very careful, measured response that they have had the capability in the past in Arizona. For the immediate term, though, Molycorp will have to export oxides from California. This was not well received by those in the audience hoping for a secure, purely American supply chain.
• Hitachi did not have a strong presence at the conference, curious considering their new North Carolina rare earth magnet factory is coming online early this year with an initial capacity of 40 tons per month of finished magnets. This is a smaller plant than originally proposed. One reason, perhaps, is because Hitachi will only press, sinter, and finish magnets in the US. All other material preparation will be done outside of the US. This was the first I had heard this.
• The ITC action sought by Hitachi loomed large over some of presentations and conversations. I've been very absorbed in following it, sifting through thousands of pages of legal documents, trying to get a feel for which way this will go. I was grateful that I had taken this on myself so I could follow and participate in discussions about this. I was pleased to note that several presentations showed other companies were taking this matter very seriously. Probably because I have been following it almost in a vacuum, I was beginning to wonder if I (we) were just imagining the gravity. Randy's employer accelerated their already ongoing negotiations with Hitachi regarding licensing as soon as the ITC proceedings were announced. They were the first non-Japanese company to sign the new licenses, clearing the way for continued import into the US even if an exclusion order is granted.
• As much as at the conference some companies' representatives continued to take a "blame China" approach as to why there are so few rare earth magnet factories in the US (and none that manufacture NdFeB magnets), the fact of the matter continues to be that unless Hitachi licenses more companies to produce NdFeB magnets, this will remain the case for several more years, regardless of how many mines operate outside of China.
• Speaking of rare earth mines, Randy spent a few minutes talking with someone from a Canadian mining company called Matamec. He was concerned that his employer's rare earth project did not have the visibility of companies like Molycorp. They claim they will be first to market with highly valuable dysprosium, an element only found in trace amounts in Molycorp's Mountain Pass. I haven't followed Matamec as closely as I have Molycorp, but perhaps maybe I should. 
• I was surprised to hear more than once how recycling rare earths from magnets was so economically impossible. It was difficult for me to believe that the price of raw material had not been so high, or at least so volatile, that some company might find the incentive to find a way to mine post-consumer product. A few years ago, Adam Minter blogged about a magnet reclaiming operation he observed in Malaysia, but these magnets were not reprocessed for their base elements. Adam also last fall moderated a panel discussion about rare earths at a recycling conference, and reports from that conference show that reclaiming rare earth from lighting was much further advanced than from magnets. However, even if recycling is not yet widespread, there are rare earth magnet factories that manufacture conscious of limited and volatile supply. Twice at the magnetics conference I heard from Japanese companies touting their lack of waste in their processes. Both times they listed their high, near-perfect material yield as a sign of the robustness of their operations. 
• After a Q&A following a motor design presentation, a gentleman from one of the other Chinese magnet companies approached me. After introducing himself and handing me a name card, he asked me what kind of motor I was designing, and if I were using rare earth magnets. I briefly considered stringing him along to hear his spiel, but I instead switched the conversation to Chinese. I told him who I was and where my husband worked. I still got to enjoy his shock at this turn of events; he thought he was seizing a new opportunity but instead was meeting a competitor. 

Overall, it was an interesting change of pace for me from my usual activities. I did buy a suit to wear to the conference, and I would like to get some wear out of it again. Since it may be another few years before I attend another conference like this, I have been thinking about changing the dress code for some of our future playdates to standard business attire. I am sure my friends will understand.