rare earths

Statistics show that rare earths reserves in China are down to 27 million tons and, at current production rates, may be exhausted as early as 2025. This data underscores the urgency of the rare earths crunch we have been discussing on this blog in recent weeks.  Having produced rare earths at rates exceeding 100,000 tons for five consecutive years, China is not only the largest rare earth producer accounting for 97 percent of global output but is also the largest rare earth exporter.

There is much dispute over China’s rare earths reserves, which makes even tighter export restrictions than the ones already imposed by the country a very likely reality. This tightening certainly serves as a catalyst for the current Congressional efforts aimed at ending America’s overreliance on foreign imports of all critical minerals.

A high-ranking U.S. Department of Energy official is making the link between American technological progress and green energy to resource development. Assistant Secretary of Energy for Policy and International Affairs David Sandalow told a U.S. Senate subcommittee last week that the U.S. must find ways to mitigate supply risk associated foreign dependence on rare earths and a range of “critical materials” vital to the technologies driving our energy future.

Basing his remarks largely on the Critical Materials Strategy issued by the Department of Energy in December 2010, Sandalow stressed the importance of domestic production as part of a multi-pronged approach to deal with challenges associated with rare earths and critical minerals in the clean energy economy, but also in petroleum-refining- and other applications not addressed in last year’s report.

U.S. DoE may be just one of the Executive Branch departments and agencies with overlapping authority on critical materials policy, but its work should be a wake-up call to the larger policy community on the need for new thinking on this strategic issue.

ARPN expert Lisa Reisman has a very insightful post on her website “MetalMinerTM” this week. Adding her own commentary, Reisman discusses rare earth and specialty metals lobbyist Jeff Green’s take on the current public policy debate regarding rare earth metals and critical minerals, as well as related legislation in pending in Congress.  Below is an [...]

Our expert, Dan McGroarty is on-hand at the Metals for Energy and Environment conference in Las Vegas. While there, he’s been live-tweeting some of the action. Check out those updates here. And below, he provides a thorough re-cap of “Day 1″ on the front lines: Day one included a full slate of informative presentations, but [...]

Rhodia Rare Earth Systems, one of only two rare earths producers in Europe, has entered into a cooperative agreement with French nuclear group Areva, according to AFP. The agreement between the two companies spells out a plan to jointly develop and exploit previously untapped deposits containing a mix of uranium and rare earths elements (REEs). [...]

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, Globe Metals and Mining has discovered significant rare earths deposits at its exploration site Mount Muambe in Mozambique. This positive exploration result will likely further strengthen China’s quasi-monopoly position when it comes to rare earths, as the Chinese state-owned East China Minerals Exploration and Development Bureau only two months [...]

Tuesday, May 24th at 9:00 a.m. EST, I will be testifying on behalf of ARPN before the House Committee on Natural Resources’ Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources, which is holding a hearing on the issue of “domestic minerals supplies and demands in a time of foreign supply disruption.” Download and read the release announcing [...]

The rare earth topic we have been covering on our blog is no longer a niche topic discussed solely by industry types and commodity traders. The latest issue of Technology Review India, published by MIT, also features the rare earth crisis and its implications.  While access to the full version of the article requires a [...]

Adding fuel to the fire of the rare-earth crisis we have been following on our blog, the Australian Associated Press reports that the Chinese government announced today its decision to further tighten rare earths export quotas, previously applied to “pure” rare earths only, to include iron alloys containing more than 10 percent of rare earths [...]

In Rare Earth Woes Could Mean Trouble for U.S. Stealth Fleet, Christine Parthemore takes a look behind the headlines at the materials that give the U.S. Military its high-tech edge: “Ever since Osama bin Laden’s demise, aviation sleuths have been trying to figure out what was the mystery copter that Delivered Seal Team Six.  I’ve [...]