China reported 2012 rare earth element (REE) export quotas on Dec. 27, 2011 that were slightly higher than 2011, but for the first time included HREEs, 4,575 ton (t) within the total of 31,130t, according to Bloomberg. That is only 6.8%.
Everyone is predicting a near-term surplus of LREEs, but at a time when a deficit is predicted in HREEs, the numbers for Quest Rare Minerals of Montreal’s HREEs look very promising. Their area of exploration in northern Canada is mineral-rich, sparsely populated, vast and underexplored.
Mines having been shuttered all over the world in favor of cheaper Chinese imports doesn’t indicate that China has the best deposits, just the cheapest. They may have the lion’s share of 48% of deposits, according to Dudley Kingsnorth, but it was their price that stopped people from developing mines elsewhere back in the 1980s. The areas of mining in China and India are the areas around the Himalayas, which is the area of the most recent tectonic plate collision and the area of the highest concentration of REEs. . .View Full Article