• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.56 no.6
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• pp.781-797
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• 2023

Recently, there has been a rapid response from mineral-demanding countries for securing critical minerals in a high tech industries. Graphite, while overwhelmingly dominated by China in production, is changing in global supply due to the exponential growth in EV battery sector, with active exploration in East Africa. Rare earth elements are essential raw materials widely used in advanced industries. Globally, there are ongoing developments in the production of REEs from three main deposit types: carbonatite, laterite, and ion-adsorption clay types. While China's production has decreased somewhat, it still maintains overwhelming dominance in this sector. Recent changes over the past few years include the rapid emergence of Myanmar and increased production in Vietnam. Nickel has been used in various chemical and metal industries for a long time, but recently, its significance in the market has been increasing, particularly in the battery sector. Worldwide, nickel deposits can be broadly classified into two types: laterite-type, which are derived from ultramafic rocks, and ultramafic hosted sulfide-type. It is predicted that the development of sulfide-type, primarily in Australia, will continue to grow, while the development of laterite-type is expected to be promoted in Indonesia. This is largely driven by the growing demand for nickel in response to the demand for lithium-ion batteries. The global lithium ores are produced in three main types: brine lake (78%), rock/mineral (19%), and clay types (3%). Rock/mineral type has a slightly higher grade compared to brine lake type, but they are less abundant. Chile, Argentina, and the United States primarily produce lithium from brine lake deposits, while Australia and China extract lithium from both brine lake and rock/mineral sources. Canada, on the other hand, exclusively produces lithium from rock/mineral type. Vanadium has traditionally been used in steel alloys, accounting for approximately 90% of its usage. However, there is a growing trend in the use for vanadium redox flow batteries, particularly for large-scale energy storage applications. The global sources of vanadium can be broadly categorized into two main types: vanadium contained in iron ore (81%) produced from mines and vanadium recovered from by-products (secondary sources, 18%). The primary source, accounting for 81%, is vanadium-iron ores, with 70% derived from vanadium slag in the steel making process and 30% from ore mined in primary sources. Intermediate vanadium oxides are manufactured from these sources. Vanadium deposits are classified into four types: vanadiferous titanomagnetite (VTM), sandstone-hosted, shale-hosted, and vanadate types. Currently, only the VTM-type ore is being produced.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.40 no.8
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• pp.564-568
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• 2007

Background: Pulmonary hamartomas are the most common form of pulmonary benign tumors, and they occur in approximately $2{\sim}5%$ of all pulmonary neoplasm. However, only a few reports have been published on the clinical characteristics of pulmonary hamartoma in Korea. Material and Method: The charts, X-rays and pathological specimens of 37 pulmonary hamartoma patients who were diagnosed by a pathological examination from January of 2000 to May of 2005 at the Catholic Medical Center were retrospectively reviewed. Result: The peak incidence of the tumor occurred in the seventh decade of life (32.4%), There were 23 men (62.6%) and 14 women (37.8%), with mean age of 55.6 years. Twenty-six patients (70.3%) were asymptomatic and 11 patients (29.7%) had symptoms. A total of 29 tumors (78.4%) were parenchymal, and 8 (21.6%) were endobronchial. Twenty cases (54.1%) were in the right lung and 17 cases (45.9%) were in the left lung. The right lower lobe was most commonly involved. Thirty-two (86.5%) hamartomas were diagnosed by surgical resection, 4 cases (10.8%) were diagnosed by bronchoscopic biopsy and 1 case (2.7%) was diagnosed by a fine needle aspiration biopsy. Thirty-four hamartomas (91.9%) were managed by surgical resection without complication. No recurrence or malignant changes were seen during the follow up period. Conclusion: Pulmonary hamartomas are most common in males during their fifth to seventh decade and they more commonly involve the right lung. No recurrence or malignant changes were seen during the follow up period.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.82 no.5
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• pp.1258-1273
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• 2021

Purpose The balloon-stent technique (BST) has certain strengths as an assisted technique for the treatment of complex aneurysms. After Atlas release, the BST can be executed without an exchange maneuver of the balloon to the stent-delivery catheter. The purpose of this article is to share our experience with the BST using the Scepter-Atlas combination. Materials and Methods Device inspection led us to a simple method to avoid failure in loading Atlas to the Scepter. From March 2018 to December 2019, 57 unruptured distal internal carotid artery (dICA) aneurysms were treated with coil embolization; among which, 25 aneurysms in 23 patients were treated with BST. Clinical and angiographic data were retrospectively collected and reviewed. Results The technical success rate of the Scepter-Atlas combination increased from 50% to 100% after careful inspection. BST angiographic results were comparable to the stent-assisted coil (SAC) group treated during the immediately post-embolization same period (modified Raymond-Roy classification [MRRC] 1 & 2 84% in BST, 96.3% in SAC) and during short-term follow-up (MRRC 1 & 2 95.8% in BST, 88.4% in SAC). A small number of patients showed periprocedural complications, but none had clinical consequences. Conclusion BST using the Scepter-Atlas combination can provide an effective and safe method for the treatment of dICA aneurysms. Scepters can be used as delivery catheters for Atlas.