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 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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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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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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