Rare Earths - Sick Industry Struggles to Take on China

Rare Earth Deposits & Mining / Rare Earth Exploration, Mining, Processing, & Uses

Date posted: 09/10/15

Manuel Quiones reports that one large bag of the element lanthanum in powder form, like the ones littering a warehouse floor at Molycorp Inc. facility recently, would have cost roughly $100,000 in 2011, after China decided to clamp down on exports. These days, the cost of that same 1-ton batch of rare earth oxide, found in dusty, white plastic pouches branded with the company signature blue and green logo, has plummeted to about $8,000. Low prices have pushed Molycorp, whose 800-acre facility is nestled between brown ragged mountains near the Mojave Desert, into federal bankruptcy protection. More recently, the company announced it is planning to idle its flagship open pit mine and adjacent processing plant near the new, massive Ivanpah solar plant. Geologists found Mountain Pass after World War II while looking for uranium. By the 1980s, it was meeting most of the world demand for rare earths. Part of the rare-earth-bearing rocks run under Interstate 15. But mining shut down in 2002 due to market woes and Chinese competition. In 2010, Molycorp took the company public with significant fanfare in preparation for a new era. But many Americans did not know anything about them until predicted shortfalls sent policymakers and manufacturers into a frenzy. Beyond scaling back export controls following a World Trade Organization ruling against the country, China has been unable or unwilling to police its mines despite public efforts aimed at reorganizing and streamlining its lucrative rare earths business. Dudley Kingsnorth, one of the world foremost rare earths experts said that he did not think the industry realized the magnitude of illegal mining in China until last year. Kingsnorth, based in Australia, said Chinese targets for production of technologies with rare earth elements exceed legal mining supplies. So effectively, the Chinese government is mandating illegal mining, he said. Read on. Good article.