Ben Kramer-Miller reports that investors associate the production of rare earth elements with China. The Chinese certainly control a lot of REE production, yet their stranglehold over the industry is far from absolute. One small producing nation is India, with about 3,000 tonnes of production. Kramer-Miller concludes that India is positioned to dramatically grow that. Recent developments suggest that India is poised to triple on a TREO basis in the next year alone with added production of REEs from monazite sand.
This would still not be a lot compared with the Chinese, however India is rich with monazite sand deposits, which provide the government with the option to expand productive capacity in order to meet more of the national domestic needs. Kramer-Miller further concludes that:
1. Indian Rare Earths Limited is now producing rare earths from monazite sand - a low cost strategy that works in a low REE-price environment.
2. The market missed this despite its broad-reaching implications - people wrongfully do not associate India with REEs.
3. They should - India has a long history of processing monazite and of small-scale REE-production, which could feasibly be scaled up rapidly.
4. K-M concludes that the Indians may scale up their monazite processing to at least the point where they are no longer dependent on Chinese exports.
5. K-M also concludes that there is a strong likelihood that India will become a major REE producer in the intermediate to long-term, i.e., within 5 to 10 years.
This thesis is predicated on a conducive geological environment, the fact that we have seen work done towards actual REE production growth, and the implicit motivations for the Indian government to push IREL down this path given REE-criticality and Indian current dependence on China for its REEs.
Working URL: https://seekingalpha.com/article/3585086-big-rare-earth-story-one-talking
Managed & Built by I2M Consulting, LLC | © 2010-
