Clint Jasper report that a handful of Australian companies are angling to enter the global rare earths market, with hopes of becoming strategic suppliers of key elements in the production of electric and hybrid cars, smartphones and wind turbines.
The 17 chemical elements that make up the rare earths group are, in fact, fairly commonly found, although not often in quantities that are worth extracting. And not all rare earths are valued equally, some are almost worthless, while the magnet metals, neodymium, praseodymium and dysprosium, are what Australian companies call the sweet spot, the ones that could make them the most money.
West Perth-based Northern Minerals chief executive officer and managing director George Bauk is developing the Browns Range project on the Western Australia / Northern Territory border. He said the company was banking on its high concentrations of dysprosium as a selling point to end users. Another rare earth, lutetium, which the medical industry uses in PET scanners, has also proven valuable.
Currently, just one company, Lynas Corporation, is mining rare earths outside of China, rival American firm Molycorp went bankrupt in June, leaving Lynas as the last company standing. Lynas mines rare earths at Laverton in Western Australia, Goldfields region, and ships it to Malaysia for processing.
This is one of only two mines operating globally outside of China that is currently producing rare earths, Mr Bauk said. They have a dominance of the light rare earths, our Browns Range project is dominated by heavy rare earths.
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