tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8104213639444546557.post3220162774608137792..comments2023-09-17T11:29:46.085-04:00Comments on People and Resources: Does the rare earths market lie?Rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00382535839751044401noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8104213639444546557.post-17454669647655458762010-04-25T13:43:45.388-04:002010-04-25T13:43:45.388-04:00Giorgio – thanks for your comment. The nature of ...Giorgio – thanks for your comment. The nature of this blog is that I will sometimes write about things I know very little of in an attempt to understand them better, and hopefully more knowledgeable commenters like yourself will correct me where I’m wrong, which I appreciate.<br /><br />It’s not clear to me from your comment what your position is on the most important issue – do you worry about a catastrophic shortage of rare earth metals outside of China, or not?<br /><br />If the bottleneck is really processing and there is plenty of primary ore, I feel less worried, because unlike mining ore you could build a processing plant pretty much anywhere, right?Rhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00382535839751044401noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8104213639444546557.post-44526487065704635112010-04-24T23:47:10.668-04:002010-04-24T23:47:10.668-04:00Most of your assumptions are incorrect.
Mostly y...Most of your assumptions are incorrect. <br /><br />Mostly you don't understand that the issue is not in finding Rare Earths ores but in processing them. The cost of a processing plant is $40 per Kg per year. Lynas is currently building a $400M+ plant which will process 11000t per year or 7% of the market.<br />Since the entire RE market is 1.5B, not many plants can be built, hence most mines will disappear.<br />Furthermore 70% of the cost of a finished Oxide is in the processing so the ore is not that valuable.<br /><br />Many companies in this space have indeed seen an 8 fold rise but most have retraced by over 50%, so a lot of money has already been made and lost.<br /><br />Storing RE is extremely costly, you can't just pile them in the wharehouse. <br /><br />Should do better research before you write about something you know very little of.<br />cheers<br /><br />giorgiogiorgio gobbonoreply@blogger.com