Metals / Commodities

• Can China's Monopolisation of the REE Market be Reduced?

  What does this percentage refer to? 97% That's the percentage of global production of Rare Earth Elements (REEs) controlled by the People's Republic of China. But even with a virtual monopoly, sales are sluggish in the REEs business. BEIJING (AP) — China announced a cut Tuesday in its rare earths export quota as it tries to shore up sagging prices for the exotic metals used in mobile phones and other high-tech goods. China accounts for 97 percent of rare earth output and its 2009 decision to curb exports while it builds up an industry to create products made with them…

• Commodity Prices Will Remain High and Volatile for the next 20 Years: McKinsey

  Just looking at a new article from global consultants McKinsey about the state of world commodities and the outlook looks bleak, to say the least. (Original here) “Our research shows that during the past eight years alone, (commodity prices) have undone the decline of the previous century, rising to levels not seen since the early 1900s,” according to McKinsey. “In addition, volatility is now greater than at any time since the oil-shocked 1970s because commodity prices increasingly move in lockstep. Our analysis suggests that they will remain high and volatile for at least the next 20 years if current trends…

• Peak Metal: U.S. Preparing for the Coming Shortages in Metals and Minerals

  Many if not most metals, rare earth minerals and other elements used to make everything from photovoltaic panels and cellphone displays to the permanent magnets in cutting edge new wind generators and motors will become limited in availability.  Geologists are warning of shortages and bottlenecks of some metals due to an insatiable demand for consumer products. 2010 saw China restrict the export of neodymium, which is used in wind generators and motors. The move was said to direct the supplies toward a massive wind generation project within China.  What happened was a two-tiered price for neodymium formed, one inside China…

• Afghanistan - Newly Discovered Mineralogical Treasure House (Again)

  As the U.S.-led Afghan campaign lurches into its second decade, the country’s vast untapped mineralogical resources are again emerging in the Western media, seemingly underpinning the benefits of International Security Assistance Force troops “staying the course” and defeating the insurgency, after which these resources can be tapped, both providing the administration of Afghan President Hamid Karzai with a source beyond drugs for reconstruction and Western companies who develop the reserves a handsome profit. The latest discovery is that Afghanistan is rich in rare earth elements (RREs). China currently has a near monopoly on the global production of RREs, and the…

• Malaysian Environmentalists Lead Opposition to Rare Earth Processing Facility

  With the price of rare earth elements due to China’s de facto monopoly now running at more than $100,000 per tons of unprocessed ore, it would seem that countries would be lining up to attempt to gain a piece of the action. Many are, with operations extending from Estonia to Mongolia. While the 17 elements, are not in themselves radioactive every global rare earth ore deposit is found amongst radioactive thorium deposits. But the Third World model of attracting foreign investment, even in so rich a potential investment has aroused environmental concerns in Malaysia over the effects of such operations,…

• Growing Controversy over Molycorp’s Plans to Mine Rare Earth Elements

  On Tuesday, the New York Times ran a story stating Molycorp, currently America’s only operating rare earth materials producer, will soon announce a heavy rare earth metal deposit right near its Mountain Pass operations. In addition, Molycorp has mining rights and regulatory approval for the deposit to “continue for decades.” According to the story, Molycorp CEO Mark Smith said in a phone interview on Monday that the company might be able to produce heavy rare earth metals in a little over a year. The heavy rare earths in the deposit include: europium, terbium, dysprosium and yttrium, according to Technology Metals…

• Report From the Molycorp Mountain Pass Mine

  When I heard that Molycorp (MCP) had just cratered by $22 from $53 to $31 in two days, I did what I usually do when a mining company I follow gets in trouble. I jumped into an airplane and flew over the pit, making sure that it was still there. I also go into the local bar and talked to the workers with my antennae out to detect any unreported problems. For good measure, I threw a compass and a few extra bottles of water into the cockpit in case I crash landed in the desert and had to hike…

• China’s Rare Earths Monopoly - Peril or Opportunity?

  The prosperity of China’s “authoritarian capitalism” is increasingly rewriting the ground-rules worldwide on the capitalist principles that have dominated the West’s economy for nearly two centuries. Nowhere is this shadow war more between the two systems more pronounced than in the global arena of production of rare earths elements (RREs), where China currently holds a de facto monopoly, raising concerns from Washington through London to Tokyo about what China might do with its hand across the throat of high-end western technology. In the capitalist West, as so convincingly dissected by Karl Marx, such a commanding position is a supreme and…

• China, Japan Minuet Around the Issue of Rare Earths

  It’s official – China’s de facto monopoly on current rare earths production is a threat to the global economy. As least, that was the gist of hearings on 21 September by the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific. Center for a New American Security fellow Christine Parthemore ominously intoned, "Reliable access to critical minerals is a matter of both economic and geostrategic importance to the United States. Today, no minerals are more troubling to U.S. security and foreign policy than rare earth elements. Supplies are concentrated mostly in the hands of one…

• European Union to Stockpile Rare Earth Elements

  In the light of the Chinese hegemony for its own energy projects, it is feared that restrictions in the global supply of rare earth elements (REEs)will ensue. Until last year, China provided some 97% of the REEs available in the world, which are used increasingly to fabricate the magnets in wind-turbines and in electric vehicles. As China expands its own use of energy, including that from renewable sources, the nation intends to hold-back its exports of REEs for its own use, with potential impacts on the development of renewable energy such as from wind across the world. Last year's abrupt…