Great Western Minerals Group Ltd. is one of the few truly integrated companies in the REE field outside of China and its Steenkampskraal project in South Africa project enhances this aspect. The fits within Great Western’s reputation as one of the most vertically integrated companies in the rare earths sector. The Company has pursued and developed mining and processing capabilities in Europe, North America and South Africa.  Great Western has also cultivated important relationships in China such that in 2010, the Company established a joint venture agreement with Ganzhou Qiandong Rare Earth Group. The exploration side is complemented by two specialty alloy manufacturers supplying the aerospace, battery and magnet sectors.

The Steenkampskraal project will also provide raw material to the development of the Company’s processing units. On March 18, 2013, GWMG released a very favorable Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) for the Steenkampskraal project. The PEA was announced just days after GWMG announced that its wholly owned subsidiary of Less Common Metals Limited (“LCM”) has now started commercial production rare earth specialty alloy using a new rare earth alloy strip casting furnace, delivering the products to three customers with more deliveries planned before the end of the Quarter while a second strip casting furnace is expected for delivery later this spring, adding to GWMG’s commercial capacity and a establishing an additional source of revenue growth. The fact that GWMG has invested in the special furnaces suggests that the Company is confident in the market potential for rare earth alloys.

                  

The PEA is based on the recently filed SEDAR filed Resource Estimate for the Project, the highlights of which are Inferred mineral resources of 278,000 tons (avg. 15.2% TREO) and Indicated Resources of 176,000 tons (avg. 18.2% TREO). The high grades of the resource allow GWMG to produce higher grade products at lower production costs, which when added to the growing alloy business suggest the project is fully on track. GWMG also said it is very interested in studying off-take agreements to further facilitate the financing of the project while establishing the basis for long term supply customers. The NI 43-101 resource estimate for the Steenkampskraal Rare Earth mine issued last spring indicated 45,500 tons with 22.3% total rare earth oxides (TREO –  including Yttrium), 21.46% light rare earth oxides (LREO) and 0.86% heavy rare earth oxides (HREO). The results fulfilled Great Western’s expectations warranting the Company to pursue further exploration to expand the resource base.

The updated estimate has virtually more than doubled the tonnages with indicated resources of 176,000 and inferred resources of 278,000 with TREO percentages of 18.2% and 15.2% respectively. GWMG is well integrated, owning downstream facilities that produce special alloys for the aerospace industry in the USA and UK. By expanding the resource GWMG can expect to feed its own and others’ downstream activities such as to become one of the premier HREO suppliers in the world, making it one of the most vertically integrated companies in the rare earths sector. GWMG also is also exploring properties in North America and has secured ties to China’s Ganzhou Qiandong Rare Earth Group through a joint venture deal. Great Western, therefore, has an advantage in the race to offset China’s dominant position in rare earths production. GWMG expects to begin mixed rare earth chloride production no longer than two years after obtaining full project financing (at about 5,000 tons/year REO a year) such as to launch separated REO production a year after that.The Chinese government’s continuing consolidation and tighter supply of the REE industry, which has stimulated the re-opening of REE mines and exploration outside of China, has contributed greatly to investors’ interest in this sector. While, China is always in a position to start flooding the REE market (even though there are substantial political and economic reasons for which this is less likely than last year) However, there is always the lingering awareness that China, which is to REE what Saudi Arabia is to oil, could decide to reverse its policy (not that there is any chance of that now) and flood the market with cheap rare metals. Great Western’s proposition is that it helps to meet the current demand for the rare earths while also controlling rare earth deposits in more than one continent.


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The Indian minister said such mining projects of IREL were located at the Orissa Sand Complex (OSCOM) at Chatrapur in the eastern state of Odisha, at Manavalakurichi in the southern state of Tamil Nadu and at Chavara in Kerala.

The minister had also mentioned that due to the limited availability of mineable land carrying raw beach sand, and the gradual decline in heavy mineral contents in the sand, the mining activities at Chavara and Manavalakurichi had declined over the years.

He had further said that there were some projects in the pipeline for capacity expansion like the one at OSCOM, and another, separated high purity rare earths project by the Rare Earth Division of IREL at Chavara, Kerala.

While Kerala has been one of the Indian states where rare earths are being traditionally mined and extracted, the details of the new plant proposed to be set up by KIOCL are yet to be revealed.

Over the past year or so, India and Japan have been cozying up to each other in REE production.

As reported in MetalMiner, India had recently agreed with Japan to jointly develop rare earths capabilities, and was also said to be watching with keen interest Japan’s prospecting for REE in the Pacific Ocean. In November 2012, Japan had signed an agreement to import 4,100 tons of rare earths on an annual basis from India.

There’s also a subsidiary of Toyota Tsusho called Toyotsu Rare Earths India Pvt. Ltd. based at Vishakapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, involved in the production of rare earths. The company operates a monazite sand rare earth production base.

The new-found alliance between Japan and India was interpreted in geo-political circles as a move to counter China’s dominance in the rare earths field.


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The rare-earth market this week downturn continues, the market turnover is still praseodymium, neodymium, gadolinium, dysprosium oxide-based. Downturn bearish market mentality, the market traded prices down low.
    
Neodymium oxide, praseodymium Monday rare earth market price decreased slightly, and for two days the market selling cheap, despite the advertised cheap, people do not think the odd onlookers. It is understood that the neodymium oxide, praseodymium excluding tax price from Monday 26 yuan / ton is approaching 257,000 yuan / ton, including tax transaction price of 305,000 yuan / ton. The dysprosium oxide market transactions poor, the transaction price drop to 200 yuan / ton. Gadolinium oxide market inquiries still more tax price basically remained stable, the current market tax 140,000 yuan / ton, the transaction price is slightly lower.
    
Week lanthanum, cerium class oxides price temporarily stable, the current price is higher than the year ago price decreased slightly, but still hardly be bottoming out. Such excess supply of rare earth products market, buyers are also mostly beat price purchases. Praseodymium, neodymium class oxides price payable to non-powered praseodymium oxide market tax price of 360,000 yuan / ton, down significantly from the 380,000 in February, neodymium oxide market tax 32-33 yuan / ton, the same The magnitude of the downstream.
    
Pr-Nd alloy market price has dropped to less than 400,000 yuan / ton, of gadolinium iron and dysprosium iron price temporarily stabilized, but the turnover downturn. If the market next week, the increase in purchase prices may be unstable.
    
Customs yesterday announced the latest rare earth export data: Chinese exports of rare earth 1,106 tons in February, a significant increase of 289.12 percent year-on-year, the average price of U.S. $ 22,654.13 / ton. Two months before the cumulative export volume of 2,198 tons, a year-on-year growth of 8.13%.

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Japanese marine research and development institutions and the research team of the University of Tokyo announced by the Japanese survey of deep-sea research vessel "Ridge surveys have identified Japan, South Bird Island waters near the seabed mud layer contains a high concentration of rare earth.
    
The research team in Japan in January this year on the seabed sludge collected from the South Bird Island around 7, with a maximum depth of 5800 meters, the analysis of rare earth concentration of up to 0.6%.
    
Members of the research team, the University of Tokyo professor Kato Thai ho sludge collected in the past last year analyzed, speculated that can be used in the manufacture of hybrid cars, dysprosium and other rare earth buried in the seabed mud layer surrounding Japan's exclusive economic zone of the South Bird Island, and its total available for domestic consumption in Japan 230 years.

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Recently, Baotou City, Inner Mongolia, the IRS has completed 143 of the city's rare earth enterprises security tax VAT invoicing subsystem upgrade within the jurisdiction of the rare earth enterprises include all the the VAT tax control system security kanji anti-counterfeiting project management, in order to achieve the rare earth industry operating conditions, and the VAT invoice comprehensive monitoring of the content of the name, heading, laid an important foundation for the strengthening of the tax administration of the rare earth industry.
    
These enterprises engaged in the smelting of rare earth minerals separation, engaged in the flow of commerce, its the VAT security tax billing subsystem upgrade, a lot of work. Does not affect the requirements as taxpayers engaged in Baotou City, the Internal Revenue Service in accordance with the State Administration of Taxation "on the invoice issued by the rare earth enterprises included in the VAT control system security kanji the forgery project management issues related to the Notice, actively contact technical services unit, unified conversion process, organization and grassroots Bureau of rare earth products directory requirements for completing the audit in a timely manner, the timely completion of the upgrade of the city's rare earth enterprises.
    
On this basis, the council include all the rare earth enterprises control system security monitoring platform, schedule plan targets monitoring platform prompted warning sales object abnormalities warning, VAT invoice content anomaly warning and the purchase and sale of rare earth products ratio anomaly warning data analysis and audit processing. These initiatives effectively regulate the city's rare earth industry VAT invoice management and other day-to-day tax administration.

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TOKYO, Japan, March 15, 2013 (ENS) – Honda has established the world’s first process to reuse rare earth metals extracted from nickel-metal hydride batteries to make new batteries for hybrid vehicles.

To make the most of these scarce resources, since April 2012 Honda has been extracting an oxide containing rare earth metals from used nickel-metal hydride batteries at a plant belonging to ferroalloy manufacturer Japan Metals and Chemicals Co.

Now, by applying molten salt electrolysis to this oxide, Honda has succeeded in extracting metallized rare earths that can be used directly as negative-electrode materials in new nickel-metal hydride batteries.

The rare earth metals extracted in this process have a purity of more than 99 percent which is as high as that of ordinary traded, newly mined rare earth metals.In addition, the new process enables the extraction of as much as 80 percent of rare earth metals contained in a nickel-metal hydride battery.

Under the newly established process, this month Japan Metals and Chemicals will supply the extracted rare earth metals to a battery manufacturer, which will reuse them as negative electrode materials for new nickel-metal hydride batteries.

This first batch of rare earth metals was extracted from nickel-metal hydride batteries collected from 386 Honda hybrid vehicles that were stored before shipment to dealers but were damaged in the Great East Japan Earthquake on March 11, 2011.

As soon as a sufficient volume is secured, Honda will begin recycling rare earth metals extracted from used nickel-metal hydride batteries collected by Honda dealers through battery replacement.

Honda dealerships will collect the batteries and the Japan Metals and Chemicals plant will dismantle them to extract rare earths. Honda will then use the extracted material in new hybrid vehicles.

Honda says it will extract rare earth metals not only from nickel-metal hydride batteries but also from other used parts such as hybrid motors and lithium-ion batteries. In addition to batteries, rare earth metals such as neodymium are used in magnets for a wide range of parts from audio speakers to electric starters.

Rare earths is a generic term for 17 elements that enhance heat resistance or increase magnetic forces when mixed with metals. They are indispensable in the production of vehicles, where they are used in motors and magnets.

China accounts for more than 90 percent of the global output of rare earth elements and is the main supplier for Japan. But China imposed sudden restrictions on exports in 2010 and 2011, cutting quantities sent to Japan and then the United States and other Western trading partners, claiming the cutbacks were due to environmental degradation around mining sites.

Japan and other governments are taking action to loosen China’s restrictive export rules. In June 2012, Japan, the United States, the European Union and other countries filed a complaint against China with the World Trade Organization over the rare earth export regulations.

Regardless of how that trade dispute is resolved, Honda said in a statement that the company “will remain committed to reducing the environmental footprint of the mobility society as a whole by developing fuel-efficient vehicles including hybrid vehicles, and also by strengthening networks which lead to the reuse and recycling of Honda products.”

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The rare-earth market today dysprosium price broke down, the large the holmium class market price differences difficult trading rare earth market weak trend continues.
   
There is no guarantee as early as a few days ago there Insiders sigh dysprosium price. Still suppliers oxides the tax offer 200 million / ton, but Ningbo rare earth who reflect market has 190 cargo, Ganzhou Rare Earth revealed today, dysprosium oxide a tax has 190 million / ton, but fewer still trading at this price.
   
Differentiated the holmium class market price quotations, price low turnover is still hard to demand market trouble, try to hit the price level - pressure on raw material supply side. There is a larger traders holmium oxide and holmium iron market tax offer of 450,000 yuan / ton. Much lower than the price the merchant business is also no good market hold stocks holmium oxide tax offer 370,000 yuan / ton, inquiries are still very few.

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Yttria saw a 25.5 percent decline this week on our MetalMiner IndX℠, making it the week’s biggest mover on the weekly Rare Earths MMI®.

Samarium oxide weakened by 9.5 percent. Lanthanum oxide finished the week after falling 6.8 percent.

Molycorp Suffers

US rare earths producer Molycorp reported a net loss of $450 million last week, and the company does not expect prices to come back up this year, according to an FT article.

The author of the article put it succinctly: “Molycorp’s problems reflect the difficulty of building a business in the volatile markets for minerals such as cerium, lanthanum and neodymium.” The company’s interim CEO, Constantine Karayannopoulos, is quoted as saying, “I really don’t see any major catalysts in the near future for prices to go either way.” The piece continued, “Beijing was trying to tighten environmental regulations on rare earth producers, which would raise prices, he said, ‘but China is a big place.’”

More Rare Earth Price Drops on the IndX℠

Neodymium oxide dropped 5.8 percent over the past week. Europium oxide saw a 3.5 percent drop-off this week. The past week saw europium oxide close after a 3.5 percent decline. Cerium oxide remained essentially flat from the previous week.

Neodymium traded sideways last week, as did praseodymium neodymium oxide, praseodymium oxide and rare earth carbonate.

Following a steady week, prices for terbium metal closed flat. Terbium oxide prices held steady, and the week finished with no movement for yttrium.


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The Resource Assessment of Rare Earths (RARE) Act of 2013, a bill aimed at securing rare earth supplies and reducing China’s monopoly on the market, has been reintroduced to US Congress by Representative Hank Johnson. The Act directs the US Geological Survey (USGS) to conduct a three-year global mineral assessment of rare earth elements (REEs).

“Like President Obama, I am committed to a future powered by clean energy,” said Johnson in a statement. “Without secure access to rare earth elements, we will be unable to lead the world in cleantech. The RARE Act will dramatically advance our ability to access rare earths worldwide.”

He noted that China accounts for 97 percent of global REE production and has demonstrated a willingness to restrict REE exports. He said, “the Chinese monopoly is a strategic vulnerability for the United States that could undermine national security and competitiveness in the defense and clean-energy sectors.”

Representative Edward Markey, a national leader on energy and the environment and ranking member on the House Committee on Natural Resources, is the lead original cosponsor of the bill. Markey has noted that if the US is to keep pace with China and Germany in clean energy technology, access to REEs is crucial.

In a letter to Representative Johnson, Ed Richardson, president of the US Magnetic Materials Association, said the bill is an important piece of a much-needed comprehensive approach to understanding current and future domestic and international supply of and demand for REEs.

Greenland hints EU may miss out

Greenland‘s prime minister has warned the European Union that he may scrap a preliminary deal aimed at safeguarding the bloc’s access to the country’s mineral resources.

“I don’t understand the behavior of the (European) Commission,” said Kuupik Kleist in an interview with Reuters last week. Kleist’s comments suggest Greenland may not be opposed to playing off European and Asian powers enticed by the country’s minerals, according to the news agency.

Questions remain regarding Kleist’s influence, especially following the country’s election earlier this week. Results show that Greenland is poised to get its first ever female prime minister after a centrist party that supports tapping the Arctic island’s vast mineral wealth, which includes uranium, won 42.8 percent of the vote.

Prior to the vote, Kleist had stated that the time for waiting is over and that the European Commission should follow up with action, including a firm deal regarding resources.

He said, “I signed a letter (to the EU) last month (saying) if we were not to take further steps to negotiating a real agreement we would rather put aside the MOU. I have not got any answer on that still.”

“I have been to Brussels many times,” he added. “I don’t have a thorough explanation why the big interest in Greenland and the Arctic area does not play out in really concrete activities from the European side.”

                 

Sumitomo to construct REE recovery plant

Sumitomo Metal Mining Company (TSE:5713) confirmed that it will construct a scandium recovery pilot plant at its majority owned subsidiary, Coral Bay Nickel, which is located on Palawan Island in the Philippines.

Scandium is a REE used in a variety of applications. “Small quantities of scandium are contained in the ore used at [Coral Bay] in the production of nickel-cobalt mixed sulfide applying [Sumitomo's] high-pressure acid leach … technology,” a press release from Sumitomo notes.

“For some time [Sumitomo] has been working to develop a scandium recovery method at its Niihama Research Laboratories in Ehime Prefecture,” the company statement also states. “This effort has now led to the attainment of technology enabling efficient recovery of scandium from the nickel-cobalt mixed sulfide production process.”

The company plans for the scandium oxide pilot plant to be constructed by the end of 2013 and for trial production to commence in 2014. It initially aims to produce 10 kilograms of product per month.

Global production of scandium is estimated at 10 metric tons (MT) per year, with the major producers being the United States, Ukraine, Russia and China.

Market round-up

China’s rare earth prices fell again this week, with little actual business reported in the spot market. Prices for light rare earths such as praseodymium, neodymium, lanthanum and cerium are under heavy downward pressure owing to rising output and weak demand, according to Metal-Pages.

Downstream magnetic materials industries are reportedly sluggish on weak demand. For heavy rare earths, such as europium, terbium and yttrium, prices were largely unchanged last week, with no transactions reported.

China’s praseodymium-neodymium metal market is slow as consumers are choosing to remain on the sidelines. There were very few deals undertaken on the spot market, with 99-percent praseodymium-neodymium metal prices down to $61,115 per MT.

China’s dysprosium oxide market remains under pressure, and market sources claim that it will be difficult for prices to fall further due to high production costs. Current prices for dysprosium oxide 99 percent are stable at $321 per kilogram, while prices for ferrodysprosium are unchanged at $337 per kilogram.

China’s europium oxide market has been stable; however, sources confirmed that prices are likely to fall in the short term as a result of weak demand. Mainstream prices for europium oxide 99 percent are at $804 per kilogram. Current prices for terbium oxide 99 percent are at $627 per kilogram.


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Rare Element Resources announced assay results from the final core holes of the 2012 drilling program at its Bear Lodge property, located in Northeastern Wyoming. Results confirm that the deposits contain high grades of total rare earth oxide (TREO), including high abundances of combined critical rare earth oxides, according to a press release.

In 2011, the company identified significant heavy rare earth elements (HREEs), including europium, terbium, dysprosium and yttrium, in the Whitetail Ridge area. The current set of assay results from that area and from the Carbon target confirm those observations. Examination of aggregate significant intercepts from past drill results as well as the current set of drill results indicate that there is a “district-wide zonation in which the strongest TREO enrichment occurs within a central zone focused on the Bull Hill and Bull Hill Northwest deposits.”


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