China"s Stocks of Rare Earth Elements Are Diminishing, So What Are the Top REEs for Investors?
Copyright (c) 2012 Alison Withers
China accounts for over 90% of the world supply of Rare Earth Elements but has recently blamed over exploitation and illegal mining for a sharp decline in its reserves of these essential components of much of modern technology.
The official Chinese news agency, Xinhua, reported that the information had been revealed in a policy paper presented to the Government and recommended that those who had reserves of the REEs should take steps to boost production.
The situation is not helped by the rising demand for the modern technology products such as MP3 players, computers, mobile phones, flat screen televisions and hybrid car batteries as earlier in 2012 China had announced a quota restriction on exports that prompted the USA, Japan and Europe to refer the country to the World Trade Organisation.
There are 17 REEs, not all of them concentrated in ore deposits in China. Their rarity comes from the difficulty and expense of extracting them in relatively small quantities from mined ore, particularly in parts of the world where there is a vocal environmental lobby resulting in a number of assessments and permits being required before such operations can be carried out.
Of these elements there are five that are currently commanding very high prices and attracting investors.
According to one REE wholesale investment broker the top four are Dysprosium, Yttrium, Europium and Terbium.
This view is backed up by a recent article in the International Business Times by Jack Lifton, in which neodymium is added to the list because of its importance to the manufacture of permanent magnets.
Of the others yttrium is used in making phosphors, such as the red ones used in television set displays, in LEDs as well as electrodes, electrolytes, electronic filters, lasers and superconductors. It is also used in various cancer treatments.
Dysprosium is used in making laser materials and commercial lighting. It is also used in making the drive motors for hybrid electric vehicles and as such is important for clean energy technology. Europium complexes can be used to verify genuine bank notes from falsified ones as well as in flat screens for colour televisions, computers, and laser equipment, while terbium is essential in many lighting products.
Terbium and europium come mainly from China and total world production of terbium is approximately 200 tons a year. In the current situation this can only emphasise the value of these two REEs in particular.
When making any investment it is always important to keep track of value and price movements because they can go down as well as up, but given the essential uses of the REEs in much modern consumer technology as well as their importance to clean energy technology such as solar energy panels and wind turbines, ongoing rises in consumer demand and scarcity of supply they are an investment well worth investigating.
China accounts for over 90% of the world supply of Rare Earth Elements but has recently blamed over exploitation and illegal mining for a sharp decline in its reserves of these essential components of much of modern technology.
The official Chinese news agency, Xinhua, reported that the information had been revealed in a policy paper presented to the Government and recommended that those who had reserves of the REEs should take steps to boost production.
The situation is not helped by the rising demand for the modern technology products such as MP3 players, computers, mobile phones, flat screen televisions and hybrid car batteries as earlier in 2012 China had announced a quota restriction on exports that prompted the USA, Japan and Europe to refer the country to the World Trade Organisation.
There are 17 REEs, not all of them concentrated in ore deposits in China. Their rarity comes from the difficulty and expense of extracting them in relatively small quantities from mined ore, particularly in parts of the world where there is a vocal environmental lobby resulting in a number of assessments and permits being required before such operations can be carried out.
Of these elements there are five that are currently commanding very high prices and attracting investors.
According to one REE wholesale investment broker the top four are Dysprosium, Yttrium, Europium and Terbium.
This view is backed up by a recent article in the International Business Times by Jack Lifton, in which neodymium is added to the list because of its importance to the manufacture of permanent magnets.
Of the others yttrium is used in making phosphors, such as the red ones used in television set displays, in LEDs as well as electrodes, electrolytes, electronic filters, lasers and superconductors. It is also used in various cancer treatments.
Dysprosium is used in making laser materials and commercial lighting. It is also used in making the drive motors for hybrid electric vehicles and as such is important for clean energy technology. Europium complexes can be used to verify genuine bank notes from falsified ones as well as in flat screens for colour televisions, computers, and laser equipment, while terbium is essential in many lighting products.
Terbium and europium come mainly from China and total world production of terbium is approximately 200 tons a year. In the current situation this can only emphasise the value of these two REEs in particular.
When making any investment it is always important to keep track of value and price movements because they can go down as well as up, but given the essential uses of the REEs in much modern consumer technology as well as their importance to clean energy technology such as solar energy panels and wind turbines, ongoing rises in consumer demand and scarcity of supply they are an investment well worth investigating.