This page has been archived and commenting is disabled.
Rare Earths and other things rare.
Lots of things are rare. A few years back while going through some old boxes my wife
found two PAR puzzles. PAR puzzles are handcrafted puzzles made from mahogany-backed plywood. Each piece has its own unique shape, arbitrary pieces within a PAR puzzle are in the shape of various “special” characters. In good condition old school PAR puzzles are rare. My wife ended up selling them on eBay shortly after the discovery to the tune of a couple of thousand clams each. Nuts. Turns out those old Powell decks I used to thrash up are worth some coin too, in good shape the vintage slabs go for hundreds even thousands.
This month the "Original Rare Earth Bug" featured a piece by Cindy Hurst of the Asia Times on Rare Earths. The chart was snagged from a Dian Chu piece on Rare Earths last year.
From the Asia Times:
Rare Earth elements (REEs) are the 15 elements that comprise the family of lanthanides on the Periodic Table, plus yttrium and scandium. These metals are vital to the production of hundreds of modern technologies such as cell phones, iPods, computer hard drives, green technologies, and critical military weapons systems. One of Japan’s largest Rare Earth importers estimated that Japan would use 32,000 tonnes of Rare Earths in 2011. Japan used REEs as early as the 1940s when the country first saw their value as polishing agents and began producing lighter flints. By the 1960s, research, development and the use of REEs in the country expanded. By 1973, Japan began producing samarium cobalt (SmCo) magnets. Two years later, Sony was using these magnets in its Walkman radios. In 1982, the Rare Earth Study Association was established. The name of the organization changed to the Rare Earth Society of Japan in 1995. In 1985, Japan began producing neodymium iron boron magnets (NdFeB), which are the strongest magnets available on the market todayand make miniaturization possible. The global demand for Japanese products is whatdrives Japan’s demand for REEs. For example, Japan is a major producer and exporter of sintered Rare Earth magnets and NdFeB alloys, nickel-metal hydride batteries,autocatalysts, digital cameras, fluorescent lamps, and others. The country is also the largest global producer of hybrid electric vehicles (HEV). HEVs contain up to 25pounds (11.3 kilograms) of REEs. For example, NdFeB magnets are used in electric motors because of their high efficiency and lightweight. Lanthanum and cerium are used in the hybrid
batteries. Beijing began cutting export quotas for REEs in 2006. By early 2007, Hiroshi Okuda, a senior advisor to Toyota Motor, was concerned enough to begin asking the question: "Is there away we could purchase an entire mine?" Soon after, Toyota Tsusho Corporation, Toyota’s trading house, set out to find alternative sources of Rare Earths by dispatching teams to Canada, Australia, and Vietnam. Other Japanese companies soon followed suit.
As Rare Earth supply is increasingly restricted..
Is a serious run on Rare Earth mines in the cards?
~MV
Hurst, C. (2011). Rare Earth Elements. Asia Times.
»
- advertisements -
I have played the Rare Earths since early 2008 or so....
GWG at 0.09, REE at 0.60, AVL at 0.90
In some sense they are irreplacable. They are unique in that they have 2 very active valence shells participating in their chemistry. Material science is only beginning to learn what effects they have as dopants in crystalline structures. You are all well aware that the High Tc superconductors all had Rare Earths.
While they are fairly common, they are a bitch to process and separate. The real value added is in the commercial fabrication of the alloys. That is why I like GWG....
By the time you see so many MSM articles pumping REE stories you’re a little late. What I don’t see in the MSM is Graphite and I have the same feelings as I did when purchasing REE when no one wanted them.
What Zero hedge got everybody high on silver, now you are slinging this rare(they are not) bullshit...that boat left the harbor....please pump me up...It was so awesome he stut all the mines cause China was selling the shit so cheap..Now MCP has a market-cap larger then USX...only revs of 123 million. compared to US Steel billions of revenue...ha ha can you say....bubble....this will end worse then silver.
Jesus look at the pumpers pumping
Scamium, Scumium, Fakeium, Charletanium, Dumium, Sleazium
That is what you pumpers are really selling. You all included.
The market for this crap is worth 300 million and the total value of these companies is in the billions. You do the math stupid people.
Due your homework people!!!.
Mostly look at the pumper posts including this guy writing.
This is becoming a goddamn pumper siteFish are eaten, you will be, The silver pump proved that.
China shut down US production in ten seconds last time by crashing prices. You all would better served "splaining" your biases instead of creating an environment of speculation that is counter to what this site used to be all about. We are here to help people = NOT PUMP! There are few places available where we can share ideas and fight the power. I think this site just became what I hate most about the web. PUMPERVILLESo is it time to short MCP yet?
I think I see an opportunity here for the financial whizzes that make synthetic swaps -- a triple-inverse-leveraged RE fund.
RXX?
[edit] RE = Rare Earth, not Real Estate.
Human biengs will soon be rare, off topic but enlightening :
http://esotericagenda.net/eawatch.html
its actually quite long but those who have done their homwork will find here a clear and precise, nicely ordered synthesis to what is known to many.
Lynas Corporation LYC has been working for me. Bought in at 1.43 now at 2.25 Chugging along nicely. In AUD too. Cheers!
Rare earth stocks have been the best performers in the resource space over the last 5 years, up 700%, and in 2011.
Here's a chart of a rare earth company index I maintain:
http://miningalmanac.com/rare-earth-index
IMO, this is another USD carry-trade-fueled bubble, and the whole thing is long in the tooth.
Speculator, you make a good point. I happened to get in very early (I also picked up a couple of junior silver explore co's when it was 46 so I am not bragging about how awesome my trading is) and the bigger names have definitely got ahead of themselves. I do think there is a longer term macro case to support REEs but when it comes to mining co's that are still trying to drill and define resources there is going to be some volatility (to put it mildly) before things play out.
MDL (Medallion Resources) is an early stage play. RUU (Stans Energy) has a low grade but potentially big deposit with known metallurgy (former Soviet producing mine and production facilities) but has sovereign risk as its in Kyrgyzstan. RES (Rare Element Resources) good management team but its expensive. Along with Quest, Great Western Minerals, Commerce Resources these all have some time to go before they're in production, its early stages of a long ball game. I'd suggest the thing to do is take a look at some of these and if you want to play REEs buy a few names to get exposure to the space but there's a long way still to go for these names and REEs in general. They've all had a nice run the last 2 years so keep that in mind, they were unknown for the most part 2 years ago.
Global Hunter:
Great summary and sound advice.
At least 50% of my pf is in PM bullion in my hands... 25% PM juniors and explorers. Balance in REE's.
As REE's are not sold on the open market as such...(No Crimex or ETF bastards as middlemen... I like that). One day soon a big private processor/manufacturer will snap up the entire company to secure and guarantee long term supply. Most likely this will be done outside of the open market with little or no warning or public fuss.
Look at Zimtu Resources, ZC-TSX, which is the umbrella company that created CCE. Dave Hodge (CEO of CCE and ZC) spun off shares for free to ZC shareholders way back when to start CCE.
ZC has a very interesting stable of very early stage explorers.
http://www.zimtu.com/s/Home.asp
Okay... I'm done pitching my book ... but I do like em... buy for a dime ... sell at a buck!
Get your nest egg back and ride the free shares for as long as it takes.
@DavidPierre, what about Avalon/Quest/ and maybe GEM??
QRM (Quest) huge deposit but expensive so BTFD, AVL meh in my opinion over-rated, GWG (Great Western Minerals) is a good one.
edit: GEM no thank you. Interests of transparency I own GWG, CCE and just sold QRM but will BTFD.
All good... but a bit pricey at this point for my interests, as they seem to have had nice run ups. I like miners in Canada... close to home and safe politically ...where you get to convert to CND $ which have gone from $.80 -> $1.05 USD in the past few years.
Like 'TradingTroll' sez above ...CCE ran to $1.70 before the 2008 crash. Should return there... and I see $2/ as a target this year if the world does not end on May 21st... or Osama is found alive and well in the White House basement.
I would add the world reserves of rare-earths by country. United States reserves rival China's.
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn19753-us-reserves-of-rare-earth-elements-assessed-for-first-time.html
There. It will take some years to exploit, but better drain China's reserves first.
DavidPierre (CCE)...yes, it was snooze you loose wasnt it. Luckily I didnt snooze and sold my CCE three years back when it was $1.70 ($0.78 now). But going forward I will snooze, thanks. You see, rare earths aren't so rare (they're quite plentiful in the earths crust) and I suggest you look into the results of the 800 or so uranium juniors spawned a few years back from a guy called Jim Dines pounding the table on uranium to see what happens in a TSXV penny stock bubble. Well only about 5% of those juniors found any resource, the rest went bust or...they became rare earth juniors!! So what is Jim Dines up to today? You can have one guess. Its two words, and begins with "Rare".
I got my shares @ $.20 - $.45 / share years before the 2008 bust.
And, like you, I sold some at the high three years ago. Now I hold the balance for free.
Believe whatever you want.
Like I said ... Do your own damn DD.
I'm looking for a ground floor opportunity on a Japanese equity that makes high efficiency, green refrigerator magnets that glow in the dark.
One should always put trust in the human ability to overcome challenges. If supply gets too tight, people find a work-around. Anybody who says rare earths are the exception is a mouth breather with no imagination... or is talking his book.
If China blocks exports, or there isn't enough to go around, some genius is going to use nanotech (or something) to make carbon or zinc (or whatever) do exactly what these metals do... only better and cheaper.
I'm pretty sure China will be terrified of our wooden trebuchets and bronze cannons.
Maybe we will re-discover that nitrates are found in manure...
If the book is good, then the dummy turns their head. The Earth is Only so big. As with all things.
Not in my back yard is forever a work in progress. In the reality. If all you folks want a computer or
IPhone, IPad or Isomething, the materials have to come from some place. Rare earths are not really
that rare. Finding them in enough quantities to process somewhere are. Just the Facts. I have my
largest investments to date in them. Yes, talking my book. But not telling you which ones. None of
the above are in my book, but all are worth investment investigation. Do your own homework. I did.
P.S. I do not own MCP, AVL or REE. I do own 6 others so far. Some which sell to China who makes things.
Like Gold, Silver and other PMs they are worth a good look. Note: You can't make metals out of plastic.
Japan has started research that focuses on finding good substitutes (not plastic). I'm sure other countries (including China) have too. It's going to take years, of course, so REE investments won't be impacted in short to medium term.
I would say that China is doing the stupid here. They have a captive market from which they can demand high prices. And yet they screw with them.
This is just asking for good minds to make some breakthroughs that come sooner than anticipated.
USA to China in the medium-future:
"We are declaring war on you."
"And oh by the way, can we borrow a cup of Neodymium?"
Lol,
And of course we have that ozzie PM who went to Japan to "promise" the Nippons that Ozzieland (aka the housing bubbleland that never collapse like energizer bunnie) will ensure that Japan gets enuf of rare earth to recover from their triple quake/tsunami/nuclear whammie. Well what she meant was she needed the Nippons to help her country's rare earth producer Lynas to arm-twist or bribe the corrupt Malaysian politicans to approve the radiation-spewing rare earth refining plant in Pahang. If Nippon fail to deliver, uncle sam's crony states would have to suspend all radioactiev car imports from Nippon.
What a bunch of nonsense.
Call up the Texas Land Commissioner's office and ask them about this topic....On public land no less.
http://www.thorium.tv/en/thorium_reactor/thorium_reactor_1.php
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thorium
Read and learn!
CCE... Bitches !!!
Commerce Resources !
On the TSX.v and Frankfurt X. The best kept Canadian Tantalum/REE secret.
These bargain prices won't last as the drill results in BC @Blue River and Quebec @ the Eldor Project are going to rock and roll this junior.
http://www.commerceresources.com/s/Home.asp
Yup... I'm talking my book ... if you look real close you will find me in some of the photos at the mine site from a few years ago. These people have made me nice $. Snooze ya lose! Do your own damn DD!
scam of the century is what i call it.