Dysprosium and neodymium: the known unknowns

I have had yet another reminder about how tentative any REE projections might be. As we all know, magnets that go into wind turbines use neodymium and dysprosium. But do we know - do we really know - just how many magnets are going to need tobe produced in, say, 2016? Last week at the rare earth two-day conference in Sydney, speakers talked about how much REE goes into the new, super wind turbines. REE applications have gone from grams (disk drives) to kilograms (hybrid...

Latest Developments on Lynas's Malaysian Rare Earth Processing Facility.

Readers of RareMetalBlog will be up-to-date on the developments of Lynas’ Malaysian rare earth processing facility. The quick summary is that earlier this month Lynas was granted approval of this facility by the Atomic Energy Licensing Board (AELB) of Malaysia. The story was a nail-biter of sorts as analysts and reporters were expecting delays in this approval until after the Malaysian elections predicted to be held sometime in March or later in 2012. As you know, it has always been my view that Lynas would...

Tantalus and Molycorp Analyst Reports-in-Review

This morning I received an analyst report on Tantalus (Byron Capital Markets Ltd.) and an updated analyst report of Molycorp (Dahlman Rose). What we do with analyst reports here is we file them in our online REEWorld.com library. This is the same place where we have all of the latest corporate PPTs for many of the companies we cover here, and to which Sid informs me – we will have the Technology Metals Summit video series posted in the next week. Here are the highlights...

China & The PM Gearless Elevator.

PM motors are the highest-efficiency ones available for elevator applications. Therefore, this high efficiency makes many PM gearless applications well suited for installation together with a line regeneration system. Such a system will provide the building owner further return on investment over time by returning energy generated during empty-car-up/full-load-down operation back to the main line to be consumed internally within the building by other loads. Typically, this energy is wasted by being dissipated in a bank of braking resistors.On February 19 we covered the emerging...

Japanese still worried that dysprosium will be in continuing short supply...

Cerium at $US38/kg. Neodymium fetching $US145/kg. Dysprosium at $US1,800/kg. Since July, these represent declines of 75 per cent, 68 per cent and 51 per cent respectively. That’s the latest prices news out of Japan via the Nikkei news service. The commentary is that REE demand has been softening because of high prices last year (a theme that recurred at the Sydney REE conference this week - see my earlier posts) and weaker demand for LCD television sets. The Nikkei is also expecting cerium to tip...

Heavy rare earths - the 16 most advanced projects

Northern Minerals, the Australian-based explorer, is a sponsor of RareMetalBlog. Let’s get that out there at the beginning: what follows is an independent view, and reported mainly because of the analyst’s views on the heavy rare earth scene ratherthan his detailed comments about the company. But David Rijkers at brokers DJ Carmichael in Perth has been following Northern (ASX:NTU) and obviously likes the story. He starts by pointing out that, in his view, to evaluate NTU, investors must realise that this is not a rare...

REE in Sydney: Vale's interest, new demand projections, prices query and magnetic refrigeration

Day Two at the IQPC rare earths and strategic metals conference in Sydney. One surprise: there were two people there from Vale, the Brazilian mining giant. Why a surprise? Because the majors are meant not to be interested in the rare earths sector because (1) it’s too small, a slice of 120,000 tonnes a year being well short of the size of project they interest themselves in, and (2) they can’t dominate it because of China. But actually, as we know, Vale is parting company...

Media Alert: Tellurium is a Rare Element but Not a Rare Earth Element

In the last several days we have seen various news stories claiming that Tellurium is a rare earth element (REE). When we saw that Discovery News posted a piece today titled Rare Earth Element Discovered In Ancient Stars, we decided to make a media correction. FACT: Tellurium is a rare element, but is not a rare earth element. For instance, in my Google Alerts today, it seems that Tellurium has been found by the Hubble Space Telescope’s spectrograph when used to analyze the ultraviolet spectrums...

China’s Latest REE Plan.

Here we go again. According to Xinhua, China is planning a big expansion of its use of rare earthelements. If it happens, how long can China remain an exporter of REEs to the rest of the world? Worse, with Molycorp mainly specialising in light REEs, and Lynas still suffering from delays in Malaysia at their separation plant, will there be enough non-Chinese supply of the heavy rare earths by 2014-2015? It sounds like China intends to move rapidly up the manufacturing REE value chain.China to...

How to extend your smartphone’s battery life

While advances in material science and energy efficiency are being made every day, it is relatively easy to forget about some of the simple day-to-day tips and tricks to make sure your most necessary gadget keeps going as long as you do. The latter quote was shared by Emily Price and the following article that originally appeared on Tecca on Dec 16th. It’s a well worthwhile read (modestly abridged)… No matter what type of smartphone you have, the device can serve as your MP3 player,...

Rare Earth Race for Production Outside of China Heats Up with Frontier Rare Earths PEA Results

The international race for rare earth production outside of China is heating up again this time with Frontier Rare Earths (TSX: FRO) announcing their Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) results and how they will have the ability to produce rare earths by 2015. This means that Frontier would become one of the largest rare earth producers outside of China after Molycorp and Lynas as well as the second largest producer of heavy rare earth oxides outside of China. The race to end China’s dominance of rare...

Sydney REE meet - skills shortages, integration challenges and China's idled capacity

Forget anything you hear about declining interest in rare earths. I’ve just got back from the first day of IGPC’s second Rare Earths and Strategic Metals conference, nowbeing held in Sydney. The number of those attending has soared since the first conference last June, and has attracted a great range of speakers. Interest is growing. By the way - and just to make those freezing in the northern hemisphere envious - the conference room is located right on Sydney Harbour (the water is about 3...

The Gearless Elevator Revolution.

The Industrial Revolution brought with it a number of technological advancements. Machine power allowed for fast developments and safety systems were introduced. In 1880, the first electric motor was used to power a lift. Led by ever growing needs in the industry, with the necessity of moving great amounts of raw materials, and the introduction of steel beam construction and increasingly taller buildings, lift technology evolved rapidly.At first after a series of fatal accidents, the public and building owners opted for the safety of hydraulic...

802.11 Equals 50 Billion in 2020.

Some of you are probably thinking what is Graeme talking about, writing 802.11 equals 50 billion in 2020, yet that’s what Cisco’s Chief Technology Officer predicted recently in London at their Cisco Live international conference timed to their sponsorship of the London Olympics. Specifically she predicted that there will be 50 billion mobile devices online by 2020, up from about 14 billion now, and it’s all down to the adoption of Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) standard 802.11. More...

Ferro Goes East.

“Our Surface Technologies business has seen strong growth as a global supplier to the advanced glass polishing segment. By joining with Baotou Jin Meng Rare Earth, we look forward to accelerating that growth through providing the fast-growing Chinese market with leading edge products,” said Jeffrey Edel, Global Business Director, Ferro Electronic Materials.Is there any point in trying to compete with China? Isn’t it the equivalent of in market trading in trying to fight the Fed? Below, America’s Ferro Corporation isn’t waiting for the Molycorp’s and...

The Weekly Review: Mixed signals on REE financing

So, here’s the big question: is the non-China rare earth thrust going to be derailed, or at least delayed, by general financing problems? This issue arises after the thunderbolt today from Australia’s Arafura Resources. Five directors - including CEO Steve Ward - are departing, the company citing the stresses of the global financial crisis. However, this must be balanced against, one, the recent backing out of the US for Lynas Corp which means it has the money to complete development of its REE project and,...

New Material Cools Under Pressure… Like me - Ha!

As mentioned last week, heres another prompt from ScienceDaily.com...The search for materials showing large caloric effects close to room temperature has become a challenge in modern materials physics and it is expected that such a class of materials will provide a way to renew present cooling devices. Up to now, the most promising materials are giant magnetocaloric materials, which the hope of possibility using them for refrigeration. For some of you who may not be familiar with the term magnetocaloric effect, some magnetic materials heat...

The Six Degrees of Separation Between Resource Capital (Australia, Canada, USA) and Louyang Hi-Tech Metals Co. Ltd (Peoples Republic of China) Include a connection to Molycorp and to Molymet (Chile)

Last week at TMS 2012 in Toronto there was a lot of buzz about the investment made by the principal Chilean molybdenum miner, Molymet, on American re-startup rare earth mining venture, Molycorp. The questions being asked where mainly of the type “Why did Molymet make such a sizable-for its revenues-investment in a venture apparently not related to its (Molymet’s) core competency?” and “Why, if Molycorp’s revival project, Project Phoenix, is fully funded did Molycorp need the money, which it will put into the corporate kitty...

Cheese off my Plate and TUC on the Radar

It’s day #2 of my spring challenge. I’ve decided to give up dairy, yeast and coffee for 6 weeks. So far the only thing good about it was the cavalcade of amusing responses from Facebook...including my favorite response with: I’m good on most all of it, but if I give up coffee, someone will likely die. 2 mugs of half consumed green tea on my desk, on my docket today is a conference call with Ian Bamborough, Managing Director of TUC Resources Ltd. (ASX: TUC)....

Lynas Operating License Appeal.

The president of the Malaysian Bar association, Lim Chee Wee, said last week, it beggars belief that [the licensing board] could have adequately and properly considered the 1123 public comments within merely two working days.The only natural conclusion is that the whole public consultation process is a sham and charade, he said.All may not be plain sailing for the operation of the Lynas rare earths refinery in Malaysia. As per above, the president of Malaysia’s Bar Association thinks the Atomic Energy Licensing Board’s public consultation...

We will be back.

Constantine Karayannopoulos, CEO, President and Director, Neo Material Technologies Inc. (TSX: NEM) in his keynote and kick-off presentation for the Technology Metals Summit titled Shortages, Surpluses and Foggy Roller Coaster Rides; Dispatches from the Rare Earth Front Lines started: “Not all rare earth applications are growing at the same rate...” His presentation along with his PPT will be downloadable to REE World members in the next week included comments like “The world doesn’t need more cerium and lanthanum, it needs better cerium and lanthanum...” and...

China v Japan Heats Up Again.

What to make of the latest spat over rare earth elements between China and Japan? The official in charge of the “Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries” doesn’t seem to be very friendly with Japan. But why would Japan’s media be reporting that there was a “signed mutual exchange agreement” if there wasn’t one? If there isn’t one, the “Japan-China Friendship Association of Okinawa Prefecture” seems to be deliberately provoking China.Cui bono comes to mind. Below the latest in the testy relationship between...

Future Supply and Recycling of Critical HREE’s

The future supply of critical HREE’s such as dysprosium has been in the news lately with Japan talking about recycling and reduction efforts. Some fear that if Japan is successful in their efforts to reduce dysprosium use that it will cause a glut, and be bad for the entire industry. But 100% of dysprosium coming from China is going to make people avoid being beholden to an industry with one supplier. Recycling and reduction by Japan is only likely to allow others who have avoided...

Electric Vehicle Beats Honda after 12 years.

A big advance in battery electric vehicle history was announced yesterday as BEVs got to first and third place in Greencars.org Green Vehicle List, beating out Hondas Civic running on natural gas. While BEVs still suffer from perceived “range anxiety” and lack of charging points, this is slowly changing with each passing year. 2012 is the first year where EVs really become available to the public, although that overstates the case at least in the UK, where the order list for 2012 Chevy Volts exceeds...

New Metal Hydride Clusters Provide Insights Into Hydrogen Storage

As you`ll see over the next couple of articles, I have rediscovered the many wonders published on ScienceDaily.com. This site has a wide range of the latest advances in Energy Matter, Health Medicne, and more. One can quickly uncover all kinds of treats on the ScienceDaily site, like the recent development at Japan`s RIKEN Advanced Science Institute (ASI), where researchers have shed first-ever light on a class of heterometallic molecular structures whose unique features point the way to breakthroughs in the development of lightweight fuel...

Recycling Rare Earth Magnets.

Is it a bad news day for the rare earth elements? First Robin posted on the news that Japan “ will offer a total of around 5 billion yen in subsidies for the development of technologies and other activities aimed at reducing the use of rare earth elements, amid concern over Chinas export restrictions on the minerals”. Now we have Mitsubishi Electric announcing that they’ve made a device for recycling REEs from used air conditioners. Mitsubishi Electric develops device to collect rare earth elements(Mainichi Japan)...

Japan vows it's serious about cutting dysprosium use

We have another signal that the emerging non-China rare earth industry cannot be complacent. All the projects being developed by North American, Australian and other playershave their economics calculated on certain demand assumptions - one of those being the some heavy elements, particularly dysprosium, will be in deficit for the foreseeable future. So much for assumptions. Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) saidon Tuesday ithas drafted plans to slash the country’s consumption of dysprosium by a third, eliminating about 200 tonnes a yearover...

Critical REEs Deficit in 2015.

The world’s largest gathering of the most influential stakeholders – financier, investors, mining professionals, government officials, etc- in African mining will take place this February. By attending Investing in African Mining Indaba, you will join an international, powerful group of industry professionals that make Cape Town, South Africa their preferred destination to conduct important business and make the vital relationships to sustain their investment interests. More than 6,000 of the most internationally-diversified and influential audience can be found at Investing in African Mining IndabaCape Town,...

The Race for Heavy Rare Earths gets Heavy

100 years ago the most popular kind of car was electric but they didn’t use REE’s. A Prius today uses 100g of the Heavy Rare Earth Element, (HREE) dysprosium. That might not seem like a lot, but 100% of dysprosium currently comes from China and that’s a lot of control. The possible availability of HREE’s outside of China in the near future was the big question at REE World’s Technology Metals Summit in Toronto last week. Lynas is likely to be the first to supply...

Make that 407

Gareth Hatch, of Illinois-based Technology Metals Research, has put as his latest estimate that there are 406 rare earth projects, owned by 251 different companies, in 36 countries. Well, he can add one more with a initial public offering now open in Australia for a start-up in Tanzania. Considering that we have only two non-China REE projects anywhere near production, that we may see only four or five more crank into action by 2016, that the REE market is tiny by comparison with most mineral...