Search Results

Rock beats scissors. Scissors beat paper. Copper beats coronavirus.

It sounds flippant, but at this moment of utmost seriousness, there’s a truth to it. 

In a new piece, senior writer for Fast Company Mark Wilson discusses the thesis of Bill Keevil, professor of environmental healthcare at the University of Southampton, whose research has led him to conclude that copper — recognized by ancient civilizations as vital for our health for more than 5,000 years for its antimicrobial properties, but replaced in many 20th century building applications by new materials — should be brought “back in public spaces, and hospitals in particular.”

Writes Wilson:

“When influenzas, bacteria like E. coli, superbugs like MRSA, or even coronaviruses land on most hard surfaces, they can live for up to four to five days. But when they land on copper, and copper alloys like brass, they die within minutes. ‘We’ve seen viruses just blow apart,’ says Bill Keevil, professor of environmental healthcare at the University of Southampton. ‘They land on copper and it just degrades them.’”

Wilson recounts that medical researcher Phyllis J. Kuhn critiqued the disappearance of copper from hospitals as early as 1983, noting that while sleek and shiny stainless steel can look “reassuringly clean,” tarnished brass, while looking dirty and contaminating, actually kills bacteria. Decades later, Bill Keevil and other researchers have furthered Kuhn’s findings.

Wilson cites a 2015 study grant issued by the Department of Defense comparing infection rates at three hospitals. Researchers found that “when copper alloys were used in three hospitals, it reduced infection rates by 58%.”  A similar study conducted in 2016 focused on a pediatric intensive care unit drew similar conclusions and found an equally impressive reduction rate in infections courtesy of copper alloys. 

As for cost, Wilson points out:

“Copper is always more expensive than plastic or aluminum, and often a pricier alternative to steel.  But given that hospital-borne infections are costing the healthcare system as much as $45 billion a year—not to mention killing as many as 90,000 people—the copper upgrade cost is negligible by comparison.”

The current COVID-19 pandemic will require creative thinking on many levels. As Wilson, summing up Keevil’s findings, writes:

“In the face of an unavoidable future full of global pandemics, we should be using copper in healthcare, public transit, and even our homes. And while it’s too late to stop COVID-19, it’s not too early to think about our next pandemic.”

 Copper may have been around for thousand of years — but sometimes a new idea is really an old one, and bringing copper back into public spaces may prove to be another weapon in battling the COVID-19 pandemic. 

In a new piece for RealClear Politics, ARPN’s Daniel McGroarty argues that while the current focus on ending the dangerous dependence on critical medicines needed to combat COVID-19 is more than warranted, Congress and the administration “may want to broaden their focus from critical medicines to critical minerals.”

Read his full piece here:

Getting Critical Medicines From China Is Risky. Critical Minerals, Too
by Daniel McGroarty
RealClearPolitics, March 17, 2020

The rapid spread of the coronavirus is doing more than claim an alarming number of new human hosts – it is burning through decades of bureaucratic inertia and plain inattention as the American economic ecosystem has become dangerously dependent on China.

Take the current focus on critical medicines needed to combat COVID-19, everything from basic drugs to treat the virus to N95 surgical masks to guard against its spread. We’re learning that these essentials come from China, ground zero for the virus itself. At the White House and on Capitol Hill – at least those corners of the Congress that have not gone into self-quarantine – efforts are now underway to jump-start U.S. production and end this dangerous dependence.

It’s an urgent issue demanding immediate attention. But while Congress and the president are at it, they may want to broaden their focus from critical medicines to critical minerals.

Just as critical medicines from China are integrated across the U.S. health care spectrum, so too are critical minerals imbedded into all aspects of the U.S. supply chains for energy, high-tech manufacturing – and most worryingly, national defense. Everything, in short, that makes 21st century America the economic and military power that it is.

In terms of critical minerals vulnerability, the main focus is on rare earths, a group of 17 elements on the periodic table that are essential to everything from laptops and LEDs, electric vehicle drive trains and wind turbines to smartphones and smart bombs. But the potential exposure of the U.S. is far wider than just the rare earths. Is the U.S. interested in developing new fleets of electric vehicles – not to mention all manner of aerospace applications from miniaturized drones to private-sector space vehicles? We’ll need graphite and manganese, two materials for which the U.S. is presently 100% import-dependent. The world’s leading producer in both cases? China. Do we want to see the U.S. develop next-generation high-speed computer chips? We’ll need gallium and arsenic, two more 100%-dependent materials. The world’s leading producer? Once again – China.

As for national security, 16 of the 35 materials on the U.S. Government Critical Minerals Mist appear in a non-classified defense study as “hav[ing] already caused some kind of significant weapon system production delay for DoD.” For 22 of the 35 listed minerals, China is either the leading global producer, leading U.S. supplier – or both.

It would be one thing if the U.S. had no geological presence of these metals and minerals, and was consigned to be an importer from supplier nations. But the U.S. is resource rich, geologically blessed with known resources of at least 32 of the 35 critical minerals, with deposits of heavy rare earths in Texas, graphite in Alaska, manganese in Arizona – not to mention innovative methods to recycle and recover critical minerals from spent EV batteries, rhenium for jet fighter engines from copper waste in Utah, and all manner of critical minerals from coal waste in Pennsylvania that’s never been considered as a potential supply source.

As these examples suggest, American innovation is ready to “work the problem” of critical minerals supply. What remains is for American political leadership to make U.S. production a priority, and align public policy with a pressing national need. With the coronavirus reaching pandemic proportions, America’s political leaders are right to focus on the dangers of reliance on a Chinese supply chain for critical medicines. But the danger is no less real when it comes to reliance on Chinese supply of the critical minerals that power our 21st century tech economy – along with every advanced weapons platform in the American arsenal.

As followers of ARPN know, the United States has finally embarked on a quest to look for ways to reduce its over-reliance on foreign mineral resources, and in doing so, reduce the leverage it has yielded to nations like China over our national security. In a new series for the Capital Research Center, geologist and [...]

We realize that New Year’s resolutions are somewhat controversial.  Some say, they‘re not worth the paper they’re written on – but we feel that whether or not we implement all of them, they offer a good opportunity to both step back to reflect and set goals as we look at the big picture ahead. And that [...]

We blinked, and 2020 is knocking on our doors. It’s been a busy year on many levels, and mineral resource policy is no exception. So without further ado, here’s our ARPN Year in Review. Where we began: In last year’s annual recap, we had labeled 2018 as a year of incremental progress, which had set [...]

Irrespective of where you come down on the political spectrum, there is no denying that we find ourselves in the midst of a green energy transition. At ARPN, we have long made the case that the current push towards a lower-carbon future is not possible without mining, as green energy technology relies heavily on a [...]

Earlier last month, Australia’s Minister for Resources and Northern Australia Matt Canavan touted the recently-formalized critical minerals partnership with the United States to counter China’s stranglehold on mineral resource supply in an op-ed for The Australian. In it, he stressed the importance of “developing mature and diverse supply chains of minerals critical to modern life”: [...]

Earlier this week, ARPN’s Daniel McGroarty shared his views on the coming tech metal age and its policy implications at In the Zone 2019 – Critical Materials: Securing Indo-Pacific Technology Futures – a conference hosted in cooperation with the University of Western Australia to look at critical mineral resource issues through the prism of the [...]

Rare earths and lithium-Ion technology metals and minerals may be the talk of the town these days — and for good reason — and stakeholders are finally pursuing policies aimed at facilitating secure access for them.   However, as a new analysis by Wood Mackenzie shows, we should not forget about the more traditional mainstay [...]

Late last week, we witnessed the formal announcement of a forthcoming roll out of an “action plan” to counter Chinese dominance in the critical minerals sector during Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s week-long state visit to the U.S.. According to news reports the plan will “open a new front against China in a widening technology and trade war by exploiting [...]