Rare Earth Magnets

rare earth magnets

Talk to an expert: Clint Cox makes the case for rare earth

Clint Cox founded the Anchor House, Inc. in 1995 to focus on situations specific investment. The company has been focused on the research of rare earth industry for more than four years.
www.theanchorhouse.com.
c.cox Email@theanchorhouse.com

What are the rare earth elements?
In recent years decades, earth elements rare (REE) are moved from obscure scientific novelty to become a key ingredient to a significant portion of high-tech equipment of today. According to Dudley Kingsnorth of IMCO, the current market of rare earth is worth approximately 1.25 to 1.5 billion dollars. In Japan, it is said that "Oil is the blood industry, steel is the bread industry and rare earth elements are the vitamins industry. "
Rare earths are used in iPods, cell phones, hybrid cars, wind turbines, energy saving light bulbs, MRIs, computers phones, fiber optics, sonar, RADAR, flat screen TVs, glass polishing, petroleum cracking, and much more. The list of applications is constantly expansion, and for many uses, there is no substitute for being the rare earths. Some areas of growth higher for rare earth magnets, high-tech alloys, and phosphorus.

The rare earth elements are the lanthanide series of the periodic table and include:

Light Rare Earth Elements (LREE):

* Lanthanum (La)
* Cerium (Ce)
* The praseodymium (Pr)
* Neodymium (Nd)
* Elements of using Rare Earth (MREE):
* Samarium (Sm)
* Europium (Eu)
Gadolinium * (Gd)
* Heavy Rare Earths (KINGS)
* The terbium (Tb)
* Dysprosium (Dy)
* Holmium (Ho)
* Erbium (Er)
* Thulium (Tm)
* Ytterbium (Yb)
* Lutetium (Lu)

Yttrium (Y) is usually included with the HREEs. Promethium (PR) is a rare earth, but is included because it is rarely created in nuclear reactions and does not occur in nature.

Note that elements such as gallium (Ga), germanium (Ge), indium (In), niobium (Nb), tantalum (Ta), lithium (Li), zirconium (Zr) and hafnium (Hf), tungsten (W) , and rhenium (Re) can fit into the broad category of "rare metals", but are not rare earth elements.

The sector demand for REE praseodymium, neodymium, terbium, dysprosium and is currently conducting market.

Key Factors to watch in 2010

Economy

This may be the most important factor in the market for rare earths. Many people think that economic recovery is underway, but otherwise, the rare earth industry may be adversely affected. The environment of 2009 introduced a conservative drop bottom market size rare earth, showing the direct effect that the global economy as a backdrop for the industry.

The reverse is also true, if there is a marked recovery in 2010, the market for rare earths expected to benefit greatly.

Consolidating Chinese

It is essential to be aware of the approach of China's rare earth because it is undisputed epicenter of the market for rare earths. The objective Rees spends U.S. to China in the mid-1990s. Since then, China has dominated the production of rare earths and currently provides about 95% of land rare in the world.

The Chinese are currently making real efforts to strengthen the rare earth industry in three distinct districts within China:

Bayan Obo * / Baotou
* Sichuan
China Southern *

Each district will most likely be under the direction of a company, in order to make the industry more efficient and more economically friendly controlled environment. If successful, the new building could significantly affecting the ability of China to control the flow of rare earth and who gets priority access to them.

Although most of the conversation around the light of scarce land (LREE) in China revolves around the Bayan Obo and Baotou, Jiangxi Copper Group said they will hundreds of millions of dollars for the development of fields in Sichuan, and it is still unclear what impact this will have on the market.

Extraction ion adsorption clays of southern China is also being consolidated. There are many, many small mines that have operated over the years very inefficient, often leading to damage to the environment and water supply. These operations can be greatly improved, and the Chinese are making significant efforts to do so.

During this consolidation process there may be unexpected shortages because of closings or increased availability of products with new efficiency.

Export quotas of China

Chinese leadership is aware of the importance of REE in the industry innovation culture today, and they currently use a number of strategies to maintain control over the market. China continues to implement export quotas and raise export tariffs on rare earth pressure on foreign firms to relocate production to China so they have access to a guaranteed supply Rees they need. It also promotes the growth of important jobs in China at a moment when they desperately need to create jobs for hundreds of millions of workers.

There was a considerable amount of fun, excitement and controversy surrounding Chinese quotas rare earth in the second half of 2009. The question was a draft proposal to mention the possibility of restricting the export of certain rare earths. This has created a media sensation, with the REE being immersed in the spotlight and becoming a new front page. However, the Chinese once said they would not restrict exports, as suggested by the draft policy.

Most likely, China should not restrict the export of all Rees. In fact, the first block of quota for 2010 has been issued for Chinese companies and they are slightly higher they were a year ago. This comes a bit as a surprise to the market, and it seems the fear of China cut the West may be been exaggerated for the moment. However, we are still waiting for the joint venture (foreign entities with a Chinese partner) shares to be released.

Any substantial change in quotas may have an impact on the market beyond its scope of practice that the media focuses about the history now, and can blow out of proportion, as happened in 2009.

The World Rare Earth outside China

Chinese rule led to an increase in exploration of rare earths outside China. The number of junior exploration companies involved in rare earth exploration has exploded over the past year to nearly 200. Most of these companies have little idea the complexity of rare earths on the market or what it takes to get mine a rare earth production, but there are a few companies are underway with the thought and care necessary to provide opportunities for success.

In addition to the junior exploration companies, it is Importantly, rare earth end users are also directly involved in current upstream in countries like Vietnam and Kazakhstan with the hope to find new scarce supply chains of the Earth to reduce their dependence on China.

For all of these projects, The challenge will be competing with China on price, and providing elements in proportion to what the markets need. Any company that performs what will be in a very special situation with enormous growth potential.

1 April 2010 Report

Congress will get its first formal look at the rare earth industry as they have ordered "a report on the rare earth materials in the supply chain Department of Defense "due April 1. It is not known what impact this study will be, or if it will cause any legislation, but it certainly has the potential to be a catalyst for change, at least for the North American market. Depending on its content, and what the next step is he if any, may have important implications.

It is also possible that they might delay the report because they do not have much time to fully understand the industry and evaluate according to its strategic mandate.

In addition to its effects on the understanding of Congress, the media reaction, if any, will be important to watch.

New applications

There is a history of radical changes in demand certain elements in the rare earths. When color television was invented, europium (Eu) has become the cornerstone of a new industry. When samarium cobalt magnets were first introduced, samarium became a superstar. Since then, neodymium-iron-boron have catapulted neodymium (Nd) in the spotlight. Dysprosium (Dy) is the current darling of the sector, as it is used in hybrid capable of operating at temperatures.

There are thousands of scientists worldwide are working diligently to develop new innovations that use land rare. At any time, there may be an announcement of such an invention, you can change the direction of any industry.

The triennial conference REE China entitled "The 6th International Conference on Rare Earth Development and application" will be a gathering of scientists from all over the world (Mainly China) to hear about some of the latest developments on the applications of rare earths.

In addition to new applications, expanded applications can also affect the current market. An example is the wind. With the increase in wind energy, demand for Nd and praseodymium (Pr) for more turbines may increase dramatically.

Strangers
There will be unknown circumstances in 2010 that sure to rock the market for rare earths. We will look with eyes wide open, but we will probably be surprised as everyone else.

Risk & Rare earths

Draw REE of the earth is a delicate matter. Firstly, concentration of background Rees stand-alone is this challenge, because there is no surefire way of exploring the rare earths. Most companies claiming to have new REE are recycling ancient deposits or occurrences known to lock with barely more than a grab sample. In addition, companies are also analyzed as to Rees they target other products.

Bear in mind that very few geologists who made the study of rare earth and still less than good understanding of the economy in question.

Although the company has shown they have the rare earths in soil, they now they must identify and characterize the host minerals and determine their suitability for economic transformation. metallurgical studies must be made whether each project is unique.

It is extremely hard, but is also very convincing and has excellent growth potential over the years to come.

About the Author

Rare Earth Magnets(Neodymium Magnets)

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