Greg Klein reports that the REE industry calls on government to support a Canadian rare earths supply chain. Free markets supposedly work free of government meddling. But what capitalist would refer to free money, even from government, as meddling? As a number of industry and academic spokespeople told a Canadian parliamentary committee, other governments do it. Canada lags far behind not only China, but also the U.S. and Australia, in funding research and development for a national rare earths industry.
Industry calls on government to support a Canadian rare earths supply chain
That was among the salient points of a 30-page summary of evidence that the House of Commons Standing Committee on Natural Resources released earlier this month. The challenge, of course, is to develop Canadian expertise that can diminish some of Chinese near-monopoly on supply, demand and the various stages of processing commonly considered inscrutable to non-Chinese.
With light and heavy rare earths considered critical minerals for their economic importance and supply risk, the urgency becomes greater. All the more so because Chinese costs of producing cheap rare earths are becoming increasingly unsustainable in terms of the environment, the availability of reserves, the health of its communities and the political ramifications.
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