Wyoming released Monday its new statewide survey of rare earth elements with promising results.

The Wyoming State Geological Survey completed an investigative report — including samples, maps, measured and recorded amounts — on the minerals to encourage further commercial exploration.

Through the scientific study, the WSGS has confirmed that rare earth elements occur across the state. For example, data indicates 20 sites produced samples with at least five times the average crustal abundance of rare earths — a positive measurement for deeper examination.

The report is available for download from the WSGS site.

Additionally, WSGS has established the Wyoming Database of Geology (Wyo-DOG) to assist in future geological studies. The database includes all elemental analyses along with brief write-ups and photographs of most samples and sites.

The Bear Lodge deposit, near the town of Sundance in northeastern Wyoming, is considered one of the largest potential sources of the minerals in North America.

Currently, Molycorp's Mountain Pass operation in California is the only active mine in the US.


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According to the latest survey, rare earth prices continued to fall during the past week with market demand depressed.
 
Prices were RMB 29,500/mt for lanthanum oxide, RMB 28,000/mt for cerium oxide, RMB 355,000/mt for praseodymium oxide, RMB 255,000/mt for neodymium oxide, RMB 260,000/mt for didymium oxide, RMB 3,500/kg for europium oxide, RMB 1,100/kg for dysprosium oxide, RMB 120,500/mt for gadolinium oxide, RMB 52,500/mt for cerium misch metal, RMB 345,000/mt for praseodymium-neodymium alloy and RMB 1,200,000/mt for dysprosium-iron alloy.
 
Rare earth market remained weak last week with prices falling further. Most sellers reported difficulty selling goods and were bearish to market outlook. Trading was still light.
 
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Demand for rare earth has been sluggish since the start of 2013, with severe overcapacity. Only demand for the widely-used praseodymium-neodymium alloy improved, but transactions were also quiet, with prices of other rare earth categories on the downward track.

Shanghai Rare Earth Industry Expected to Double
Shanghai Rare Earth Industry Association was founded on May 28. Shanghai rare earth industry has been growing rapidly, with the industry output value increasing from RMB 2.52 billion at the end of the 10th Five-Year Plan period, to RMB 5.05 billion at the end of the 11th Five-Year Plan period.

Guangdong to Invest in Aluminum and Rare Earth Projects in Inner Mongolia
The Inner Mongolia & Guangdong Technology Cooperation Week was held in the Baiyun International Meeting Center last week. Inner Mongolia collected 342 projects cooperating with Guangdong, covering steel, equipment manufacturing, aluminum, power and rare earth industries.

Indicators of Nine Ore Categories to be Finished
The recovery rate, recycling rate and integrate utilization rate are minimum requirements for mines. China will continue to study the three rates of nine ore categories including oil and gas, iron, copper, lead, zinc, fluorite, rare earth and sylvite, with the indicators of iron, copper, lead and zinc completed in late May, and the indicators of fluorite and rare earth finished in late June, and those for sylvite expected to be completed in late July.

MLR Delegates Mineral Resources Exploration Examination and Approval Authority
The Ministry of Land and Resources Geological Survey Department Deputy Director, Mineral Exploration Office Deputy Director Yu Haifeng revealed that the MLR is considering delegating examination and approval authority of mineral resources exploration to local governments.


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Ganzhou rare earth industry development and regulation policy seminar was held in Jiangxi University of Science and Technology (JUST ) on May 27. Ganzhou Deputy Mayor Chang Guowu and Vice President of JUST Luo Sihai attended the meeting and addressed. The meeting was hosted by Deputy Secretary General and Director-General of the General Office Xue Youchang and Chen Shixian, Secretary of Party Committee of the Commission of Industry and Information Technology of Ganzhou City.

Ganzhou Minerals Resource Management Bureau, Longnan County government, Xinfeng County government, Ganzhou Development and Reform Commission, Ganzhou Local Taxation Bureau, Environmental Protection Office, relevant magener of Ganzhou Forestry Administration, Ganzhou Rare Earth Group, JLMAG RARE-EARTH CO., LTD (JLMAG), JiangXi Illuma Fluorescent Materials, Ganzhou Qiandong Rare Earth Group, Ganzhou Chenguang Rare Earth New Materials, Jiangxi South Rare Earth Hi-tech Company, China University of Geosciences, Yanshan University and related leadership and experts attended the meeting.

Luo Sihai presented JUST's achievements in the cultivation of talents, and getting approval of national rare earth engineering and technological research center, and also illustrated the backdrop and target of the seminar. He reported the university is domestic first high school with rare earth engineering course of bachelor degree, which owns high standard rare earth research platform, and massive experience in rare earth study. The meeting will discuss the China Rare Earth Strategic Development and Export Industry Policy Research to give policy support to the healthy and sustainable development.

Chang Guowu affirmed the university's power. He suggested the research needs to assess national existing policies, adjusting the program timely according to current situations and the change of domestic and overseas demand. The research program should be focused in Ganzhou, and the policies should be operational. The policy should also be in line with international regulations.

Experts discussed and gave precious suggestions in the effects of national regulations on Ganzhou rare earth industry, problems in Ganzhou rare earth consolidation, how to reform tax to boost Ganzhou rare earth industry development and how Ganzhou government should cope with changes in international rare earth market.

The China Rare Earth Strategic Development and Export Industry Policy Research program is mainly operated by Professor Ye Rensun of JUST.


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Shanghai Rare Earth Industry Association was founded on May 28. Shanghai rare earth industry has been growing rapidly, with the industry output value increasing from RMB 2.52 billion at the end of the 10th Five-Year Plan period, to RMB 5.05 billion at the end of the 11th Five-Year Plan period.

Shanghai rare earth industry is improving its industry structure, developing into rare earth permanent magnetic material, luminescent materials, laser materials, hydrogen storage material, catalytic material, polishing material and biomedical material. High-technology and high value-added rare earth products are leading products.

Global rare earth demand by 2015 is expected to reach 210,000 mt, with domestic demand of 138,000 mt. Rare earth industry value in Shanghai will reach RMB 10 billion, up 98%.


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Enhanced government regulations, M & A, the launch of rare earth quotas, environmental protection policies and market speculations had pushed up rare earth prices , with the rare earth industry becoming the focus of markets. Rare earth enterprises thus earned massive money.

But the rare earth industry has been weakening over the past year, with demand remaining sluggish. "Rare earth prices have dropped back to 2010 levels for now." Said a market player.

Although rare earth exports improved in Q1, but the market player reported even if they export 1,000 mt of rare earth each month, exports will only total 10,000 mt, which is much lower than the 30,000 mt/yr export quotas.

The rare earth industry is resource-intensive, with price trends affected by not only supply and demand but also commodity and macroeconomic situations. Both trading volumes and prices will maintain downward track in the near future.

But rare earth prices will rebound once bottomed out. However, rare earth oversupply will not relieve in the foreseeable future. China's rare earth capacity has reached 320,000 mt/yr for now, much higher than global total demand of 120,000 mt/yr.

Nevertheless, rare earth enterprises are seeking for a new way out, innovating technology and developing high-end rare earth new materials.


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"Domestic rare earth overcapacity has been deteriorating, and rare earth enterprises come under severe losses, the operating rate falls short of 40%. We should push structure adjustment, method reform and upgrading, developing high value-added and profitable new materials." Said Hu Yaobin, General Manager of Inner Mongolia Huayi Rare Earth Company in an interview.

Hu said there are over 120 rare earth producers in China for now, with annual oxide capacity a high 320,000 mt/yr, when combined with overseas equipment brought online, market supply far exceeded the 120,000 mt/yr total global demand. Overcapacity and international economic downturn has caused demand to fall sharply, causing domestic rare earth business to deteriorate since 2012. Rare earth oversupply will not ameliorate in the near term.

Hu said the soaring rare earth prices over the past years and China implementing rare earth export quotas to protect environment and strategic rare earth resources triggered market concerns over rare earth supply shortfalls, and allowed overseas countries to accelerate rare earth exploration. Over 200 companies in 40 countries planned over 500 rare earth projects, with the 40 projects in 15 countries including US, Australia, Brazil, Canada and Kyrghyzstan progressing most rapidly. Molycorp's capacity has reached 5,000-6,000 mt/yr, and will increase to 400,000 mt/yr by the end of 2013. Australian Lynas Corp produced its first batch of rare earth products last year, and its capacity will reach 22,000 mt/yr in several years, which can meet about 1/3 of global demand. Merely the two companies will meet global demand outside China after 2015.

Hu reported high rare earth prices forced consumers to seek for substitute or substitute technologies, largely contracting demand for rare earth, and leading to oversupply of the industry. Foreign countries have developed rare earth permanent magnet substitute technologies, rare earth reduction technology and rare earth polishing powder re-utilization tactic. Toyota, for instance, developed rare earth-free motor. Besides, the development and utilization of LED illumination technology constrained demand for rare earth luminescent material.

 "Rare earth oversupply is negative for the industry, but it also forces doemstic rare earth enterpirses to seek for a way out by technology innovation and producing high-end rare earth new material." Said Hu.
　　
Domestic rare earth resources have been explored for over five decades, but are unadvanced compared to international levels, mainly concentrated in permanent magnet material, luminescent materials, hydrogen storage material and polishing powder. Domestic high-end products rely on imports.

Domestic rare earth product exports are majorly preliminary products with low or medium value-added, which accounts for 75% of total exports. In contrast high value-added exports only account for 25% of total national volume, with margins of enterprises only 1%-5%. High-end rare earth rare earth permanent magnetic materials are mainly produced in Japan.

Hu Yaobin believes rare earth enterprises will not survive overcapacity unless they develop high-end products.


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Inner Mongolia's rare earth exports soared in the first four months this year, with 1,259.6 mt, 4.3 times higher than the same period last year, 20.6% of total domestic rare earth exports.

Domestic rare earth exports have been growing since the start of 2013. YTD rare earth export value through April by Inner Mongolia reached USD 14.562 million mt, up 25.8%, to account for 10.7% of total national volume. Exports in April were 459.3 mt, compared to zero the same period last year, up 49.4% MoM; the average export price was USD 11,000/mt, down 8.3% MoM. The average export price during January-April was USD 12,000/mt, down 75.5%.

The significant growth in Inner Mongolia's rare earth exports is attributable to the low export volume over the same period of 2012, with no export recorded during February-April, and with only 237.3 mt exports made in the first four months. Inner Mongolia exported 1,259.6 mt of rare earth from January through April 2013 by general trade, up 4.3 times. Rare earth exporters are foreign-invested enterprises, private enterprises and SOEs, with 479.4 mt exports made by foreign-invested enterprises, up 1.1 times. Exports made by private enterprises and SOEs were 476.3 mt and 303.9 mt, respectively, with the volume by the former up 48.6 times. About 80% exports were made to US, France and Japan.

Inner Mongolia's rare earth exports increased as China raised export quotas, but soft demand remains the major factor refraining export price. Given overcapacities in resources and production and as overseas capacity is released, the dependency degree of US and Japan on China's rare earth is decreasing.


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Following the successful verification of the acid leach recovery process at ANSTO which was announced earlier in the year, a high purity mixed rare earth carbonate has been produced.

The belowing picture is the high purity (99%) mixed rare earth carbonate (56% REO) produced from Ngualla feed mineralisation at ANSTO Minerals.

                 

The carbonate was precipitated directly from the rare earth chloride solution (Figure 1) used as the feed for the SX Pilot Plant which was produced from a bulk sample of Ngualla mineralisation.

Peak said that assay results of this carbonate have now been received and indicate a high purity (>99%) rare earth carbonate with a rare earth content of 56% REO and less than 1% impurity metals present. Most importantly, the radioactive elements, thorium and uranium, are extremely low, being below detection limits.

Peak Resources has achieved a significant milestone on the road to commercialising the wholly-owned Ngualla Rare Earth Project in Tanzania, following the production of two refined rare earth products.

Ngualla is on track to become the next major rare earth supplier with high grade mineralisation and a simple, proven metallurgical process supporting a low cost operation.

These products were produced at ANSTO Minerals (Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation), and importantly are in a saleable form and available for evaluation by target customers.

The rare earth products completed to date are:

- An ultra-high purity (99.9%)* mid and heavy rare earth oxide (M+HREO).
- A high purity (>99%) rare earth carbonate with a grade of 56% REO.

                  

The work includes the first of four separated high purity rare earth oxide products from the Solvent Extraction Pilot Plant now in operation at ANSTO.

Peak said that the SX Pilot Plant work is progressing well with three additional separated rare earth oxide samples to be produced over the coming months, including a high purity didymium oxide (a neodymium – praseodymium mix) sample which is expected in June, followed by cerium oxide and finally a lanthanum oxide.

Alastair Hunter, chairman for Peak, commented: “The successful production of these products of such high quality is an achievement very few other companies have made and we are hopeful they will exceed the expectations of any future off take customers.

"This work is well within the required specifications and demonstrates Peak’s commitment to drive the development of the Ngualla Project forward.”

Ngualla is a leading rare earth project with an estimated NPV of US$1.57 billion and pre-tax IRR of 53% for an initial 25 years production and an average grade of 4.35% REO.

Peak continues to fast track the development of Ngualla with the aim of becoming a low cost, long term producer of high purity rare earth oxide products in 2016.


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