America's New Energy Dependency: China's Metals

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Wr Grace tried to lease some of this property many years ago when the produced the rare earth metals. This area, Rhone Polnic a French company was going to recovery the rare earth metals. This area has had extensive drilling and many reports on the heavy mineral suit and gold that is in this 30 mile by 40 mile deposit. I would think that a deposit of this size would be one of the largest in the world., and would worry China very much. The technology is already known how to produce the rare earth metals from this deposit. Most of the area contains enough gold to pay for mining and milling and show a profit.

Orvie Zimmerman of CO 11:29PM July 17, 2009

We recently did a study on the world distribution of Rare Earths deposits and found that Australia has substantial quantities of mine grade rare earth deposits.
In fact Australian listed ASX companies control almost as much rare earths as China...
There are three Australian compnaies that have large Australian deposits and one very small by market cap company ASX:Code: GGG that owns the very large Greenland deposit (that may not be able to be mined due to political concerns)
To get an understanding of these issues please vist: http://www.australianrareearths.com/current-issues.html
<img src=http://www.australianrareearths.com/images/rees-update1.gif> if the image doesn't show cut and past this http://www.australianrareearths.com/images/rees-update1.gif

Sparty 10:31PM July 08, 2009

I have seen some other articles on this topic lately. I find it to be of concern, but I also think it may be a bit of a "tempest in a teapot". Economic and political forces may make it impossible for China to cut off supplies of critical materials to the rest of the world. Even if the costs of some of these materials increase 10X, many users may be largely indifferent because they use only small amounts.
There are a number of steps that can be taken to ameliorate the situation:
1) Stockpile - Western governments (including Japan) can stockpile years' of strategic supplies of these materials as a hedge against China shutting them off. This makes at least as much sense as a strategic petroleum reserve.
2) Exploration and mining: the fact that it currently takes 8-12 years to open a mine doesn't mean that the process can't be expedited
3) RECYCLING: One big difference between rare earth metals and oil/coal/natural gas is that we don't burn metals up. Not much discussed, but possible shortages might be another rationale for developed countries to STOP shipping their electronic junk to 3rd world hell-holes and work on processes to recover more of the metals here at home - for the US better for the global environment and American jobs.
4) Alternatives: with some time, creativity and ENERGY, substitutes can be found for most anything. It just may be that the results will be bulkier, heavier, less efficient, etc.
Let's think of how to solve the problem, not just wring our collective hands.

Rare Metal Man 1:04AM July 08, 2009

Would the US really be in a crisis if we could not obtain iPODs blackberrys or plasma TVs?

J Pribble of NC 11:32PM July 06, 2009

Thank you Mr. Garber for your insightful article, I believe that you have constructed a perceptive chronicling another pending US resource disaster. Much of our nation’s leadership has become so apathetic to the significance of our strategic natural resources that we may very well be subjected to another foreign monopoly.
Kudos to Rep. Mike Coffman of Colorado and Sen. Evan Bayh of Indiana for their legislative proposals and I hope that your article will garner interest in the US holdings of Molycorp and Thorium Energy, Inc. Please continue to write of the urgency in preserving and developing these rare earth elements as an American resource and of their importance in our “green economy”, our military and to our commercial sector.

P. Kennedy of TX 8:26PM July 06, 2009

Great reporting. This article opens your eyes towards a great investment opportunity. I have noticed that Molycorp and Thorium Energy, Inc. are not public companies-maybe someday. I will keep an eye to see if Thorium Energy, Inc. or Molycorp does go public.

Joe of CO 6:00PM July 06, 2009

does anyone know if thorium energy, inc or molycorp are public?

ted of TX 5:49PM July 06, 2009

This is a great article. A real eye opener and very informative. I hope that the US gets with it. Why not produce our own rare earths since we have them.

Megan of HI 5:35PM July 06, 2009

Jim--I think you are too picky. A person can always take any article and try to find minute errors(FYI--he did explain rare earths). However,I believe that the shortage of neodymium and lanthanum in this country is a real and legit concern. The US does not produce any and buys most of these materials from China. The over all topic is one that deserves attention and debate. Thankyou Congressman Coffman and Senator Bayh.

Ted of TX 4:41PM July 06, 2009