This is what the Chinese people are investing in.
Metal Recycling Entrepreneur
This is what the Chinese people are investing in.
Metal Recycling Entrepreneur
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I believe China has a very high percent of rare earth metals that have been discovered to date. Geologically, rare earth metals are not "rare". Big deposits of rare earth metals are rare. I think the China has most big deposits of them and the government is manuvering to be a world power by controlling the mining and trade of rare earth metals. Rare earth metals are used in all sorts of technology now-a-days. The Chinese know the value.
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The United States has massive deposits and mines that still contain rare earth metals. I believe two are reopening in the near future.
They were closed down when China ramped up their own mining efforts and offered these resources for prices that the US couldn't compete with. However, as their manufacturing has ramped up, they have been required to cut their exports, affecting manufacturing in Japan, so once again because of prices, supply and demand, the US is reopening several mines with plans for more in the future.
It's not that these metals are rare in general, it's that they are distributed differently and do not concentrate as does gold, silver, iron, etc. It's a different type of mining but the US actually had a lot of these types of resources.
Scott
At the heart of science is an essential balance between two seemingly contradictory attitudes--an openness to new ideas, no matter how bizarre or counterintuitive they may be, and the most ruthless skeptical scrutiny of all ideas, old and new. This is how deep truths are winnowed from deep nonsense. -- Carl Sagan
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Scott--- it's good to see your posts on the board again.
It's awesome to have the knowledge base that you represent here.
THANKS!!
Out of clutter, find simplicity. --Albert Einstein
Metal Recycling Entrepreneur
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I know the US has deposits, one in California that I know. I was quoting something I read a few years ago and was too lazy to look up more recent news.Originally Posted by NobleMetalWorks
Metal Recycling Entrepreneur
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Metal Recycling Entrepreneur
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Please use the sharing tools found via the email icon at the top of articles. Subscribers may share up to 10 or 20 articles per month using the gift article service. More information can be found at https://www.ft.com/tour.
https://www.ft.com/content/2c3dea3e-...6-896b95f30f58
A battle is heating up for control of a bankrupt mine that is the only significant US source of the rare earth elements used in advanced electronics and some defence applications.
A group led by a former nursing home operator and Switzerland-based private equity fund will vie with a team of US hedge funds and a Chinese rare earths company in an auction set to decide the fate of the bankrupt Molycorp-owned mine on June 14.
At stake is whether the US can successfully mine its own resources of rare earths, which are increasingly being used in electric vehicle magnets as well as wind turbines — and end its reliance on Chinese supplies.
Mike Pompeo, director of the CIA, said this month that the US dependence on foreign sources of rare earths was “a very real concern”.
Last year the US imported $120m of rare earth metals, according to the US Geographical Survey, more than 70 per cent from China.
The winner of the auction is likely to have to pass scrutiny by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the US, and take on an estimated $80m in environmental liabilities.
Molycorp invested over $1.5bn into the mine, which is about 50 miles south of Las Vegas, but a collapse in prices of rare earths led the company to declare bankruptcy in 2015.
The mine contains elements such as neodymium, praseodymium and dysprosium that go into magnets used in batteries and wind turbines.
Tom Clarke, a former care home operator who has been buying bankrupt US coal mines, has teamed up with Switzerland-based Pala Investments and Australian rare earths explorer Peak Resources to offer $1.2m for the mine.
“There’s a broad support that we need to have these elements here in the US,” Mr Clarke said, adding that there was a reliable market for the materials given growing demand from electric vehicle batteries.
“We really do believe that even in the current markets certain of these elements will be profitable,” he said.
Set against Mr Clarke in the auction is a group of Molycorp creditor hedge funds. They include Chicago-based JHL Capital Group, run by James Litinsky, and QVT Financial, which have teamed up with Shanghai-listed Shenghe Resources, a rare earths processor.
Adding to the complexity of the process, a company owned by JHL, QVT and New York-based asset manager Oaktree Capital own the mineral rights to the mine.
Mr Clarke said his group could still use the mine site to process material from elsewhere if they did not get the mineral rights — but he hoped to negotiate for them if he wins.
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Meh, it is certainly not the only significant deposit, and not the only mine that exists to be sure. It was the only mine in operation. For whatever reason it seems that being the only mine that was recently in operation, for people who are reporting on this subject it becomes the only significant deposit. That's not true. If you check out the USGS, you can find a lot of very useful information in regards to just how many significant rare earth element or REE deposits actually exist in the United States.
USGS link to rare earth element deposits
https://pubs.usgs.gov/sir/2010/5220/
If you check out the map, and the links on the right hand side, you can view a lot of the information on the individual deposits. The Mollycorp Mine is the only mine that is ready to be mined today, due to the dispersal of rare earth elements or metals or REE or other names these elements are often called, the type of mining required to recover these elements often requires a structure such as an open pit mine. These types of mining operations are considered to be destructive to the environment. In the past the feeling was that if China was willing to ruin their own environment and is providing these elements for less than we can in the United States, that we should allow them to. But now that technology has expanded the need for these elements, and everything from our military equipment to touch screens, batteries, etc require these elements it's now become not only an interest but an issue of national security.
Also, if we want to get technical, all old mine tailings where ore has been washed, and separated, could be processed for rare earth elements. The same can be said for coal mines, they can be re purposed for mining rare earth elements. I am personally working on an ore, actually slag, in which there are millions of tons of this type of material that was generated between the late 1800s to the mind 1960s that contains a lot of concentrated rare earth elements that could be processed for those elements.
We currently are not mining, once again, rare earth elements in the United States, but I have read recently that there are plans to open several since Trump is President. The issue has been a combination of environmental issues as well as price, both those things have now changed and it seems the political environment is more open to the types of mining operations required to recover REEs.
Scott
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Thank you Sir, how have you been? Took me a bit of time to get healthy again, but I am and for better or worse hanging around here again. =)
Scott
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Just some links and examples of rare earth metals, mines, futures, how common they are, where they can be mined now in the US, etc.
Northeast Wyoming is home to one of the highest grade rare earths deposits in North America, currently under development.
https://www.wyomingmining.org/minerals/rare-earths/
Missouri mine shines spotlight on global battle for rare-earth metals
Missouri mine shines spotlight on global battle for rare-earth metals | Al Jazeera America
Rare earth elements: Not so rare after all
Look around you -- rare earth elements are everywhere. Lesley Stahl gets a demo
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/rare-ea...are-after-all/
My Visit to An American Rare Earth Metals Mine
https://www.popsci.com/technology/ar...are-earth-mine
Coal industry may mine rare earth elements for Silicon Valley
Coal industry may mine rare earth elements for Silicon Valley
Can rare earths turn old coal mines into gold mines supplying smartphone makers?
http://www.post-gazette.com/powersou...s/201710060034
Last edited by NobleMetalWorks; 11-14-2017 at 08:19 PM.
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Another thing that we all might want to consider on this forum, is the fact that a lot of people here are already collecting much of the scrap that contains rare earth elements. Like flat screens for example. There is a push to have operational here in the United States, facilities that are able to recycle, recover and refine rare earth elements from recycled consumer electronics. Like your flat screens for example. I have only run across a few articles on the subject, so I can't offer anything really solid, but if someone does read anything about these efforts please post it. It's going to become a "thing" in the near future as it's far more cost effective to recover concentrated rare earth elements from where we have already concentrated them, rather than mining them.
Scott
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