China, the world’s biggest supplier of rare-earths, set the first of two production quotas for 2013 at 46,900 metric tons of the ore that is refined for use in mobile phones, hybrid cars and missile systems.

The figure is about half the total quota set last year, according to a Ministry of Land and Resources statement posted on its website on Jan 5. The ministry didn’t make public the production quotas last year, while the figure in 2011 was 93,800 tons.

Output quotas for the rest of the year will be announced in the second quarter, according to the statement.

China also set a production quota for tungsten concentrate at 43,500 tons and antimony ore at 37,680 tons, according to the statement, which gave no comparison with previous years.

Since 2007, China has imposed production limits on rare earths and set export restrictions to preserve supply and conserve the environment. The curbs raised trade disputes with the world’s major users, including the U.S. and Japan.

Rare earths are a group of 17 chemically similar elements gaining increasing usage in the shift to cleaner energy sources, such as magnets in wind turbines, hybrid vehicle batteries and catalysts to reduce automobile exhaust emissions.

China, which provides about 95 percent of global rare earth shipments, also cut the first-lot export quota by 27 percent to 15,501 tons from that of 2012, according to a statement by the Ministry of Commerce on Dec. 28.

Demand for some China rare earths has declined as companies such as Toyota Motor Corp. and Hitachi Ltd. (6501) to recycle the metals and employ substitutes. In November, Japan, the world’s biggest importer of rare earths, signed an agreement to buy more of the metals from India to diversify supply.

Praseodymium-neodymium oxide, a light rare-earth product, traded at 285,000 yuan ($45,756) a ton on Jan. 4 in Shanghai, according to researcher Shanghai Steelhome Information. Prices have tumbled 78 percent from a record 1.28 million yuan set in June 2011.

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The government aims to identify by the first quarter potential mining tenements for the Philippines’s venture into rare earth elements (REE) production, the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) said on Wednesday.

“In fact, we have already found potential areas to explore and these areas are also close to copper-gold mines. Notably, Palawan and Nueva Vizcaya are the best places to start,” said MGB Director Leo Jasareno.

REE are the raw materials for producing electronics and other modern-day gadgets.

The MGB earlier said P20 million has been set aside for the REE venture.

The Philippines’s bid to develop REE production comes after China capped exports of the commodity more than a year ago.

Manila sought help from state-run China Geological Survey for the exploration program, but no such assistance was forthcoming after tensions between the two countries heightened because of competing claims over portions of the West Philippine Sea, believed a treasure trove of oil and gas reserves.

“So far, we have received no word from them,” Jasareno said.

China, which controls about 97 percent of the world’s rare elements, has reduced its export quota to gain control over global prices of the commodity.

Prices of the metals however have gone down over the past several months, with China’s biggest producers cutting production to halt the slide.

Also called the “metals of the future,” REE are used in the production of weapons guidance systems and other space age technologies.

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Cold-call phone scams have switched from traditional sales staples, such as unlisted shares in obscure companies, to novel new get-rich investment options such as land, wine, and lumps of rare earth metals.

The Independent reports that the sale of rare earth elements by unregulated "boiler room" companies in England has become the latest trend in investment phone scams.

Around 25 to 30 such companies currently operate in the UK, none of which are subject to regulation or oversight by the Financial Services Authority (FSA).

One company in the Midlands offer credulous investors a "green energy bundle" of rare earth metals via cold-call phone marketing.

For 6,744 British pounds retail investors can buy one kilo of dysprosium, one kilo of yttrium and two kilos of lanthanum and neodymium, which purchasers are informed over the phone will surge in value.

Yet based on current market prices the bundle, assuming 99% purity free of oxides, is worth only 900 pounds, equivalent to a 7.5 times price mark-up.

One investor in Bradford was targeted by cold-call investment company Rare Earth Metal Exchange Ltd firm after receiving a substantial inheritance, the public details of which had been data-mined and sold.

The company convinced the investor to spend 45,000 pounds on five kilos of rare earth metal dyprosium which she was informed would surge in value over the next twelve months.

The investor received only one kilo of the metal, while the total value of her purchase was only around 3,500 pounds.

The new wave of scams capitalize upon the vital importance of rare earth metals for modern hi-tech industries, and the increasing media attention they receive due to China's stranglehold on global supply.

The FSA states, however, that there is no "convincing evidence that there is a viable market for investors to make money," with Jonathan Phelan, head of the FSA's unauthorized business department, pointing out that these kinds of industrial metals are traded between specialist firms.

The FSA has achieved modest success in returning money to investors defrauded via unregulated phone scams, yet has called for the government to introduce new legislation to prohibit such activities and protect the unwary.

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A GOVERNMENT agency will be conducting geological survey in mountainous areas within the first quarter of 2013 to identify areas containing deposits of rare earth elements.
  
“We are in the initial phase of identifying areas containing rare earth deposits,” Mines and Geosciences Bureau Director Leo L. Jasareno said in a telephone interview yesterday. “We are not yet concerned with identifying mining tenements, we are just identifying areas with rare earth deposits,” Mr. Jasareno added.

The government has initially allotted P20 million for the project.

The Philippines wants to determine if it has enough rare earth deposits to support commercial production.

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