Machacek and Fold (2014) reported that the 2011 peak in rare-earth element (REE) prices revealed a vast knowledge gap on the REE-based industry considered to be almost monopolized by Chinese players. A global value chain (GVC) framework is used to provide an understanding of value-adding segments of REE in their transformation from mine to market but inquiries on the currently most-advanced company strategies for alternative REE supplies form the cornerstone of this paper.
The Anglo-REE deposit developer strategies are aligned with the value-adding segments and different approaches to integration and co-option of REE processing competence are uncovered. On this basis the significance of alternative Anglo-REE-developer supplies is discussed and positioned in the perspective of Chinese industrial upgrading.
In the third quarter of 2011,free-on-board China prices for products of rare-earth elements (REE), a group of 17 non-ferrous metals, surged by up to 600 percent, caused by Chinese reductions in export quotas and exacerbated by territorial disputes between China and the second largest REE market,Japan (Metalpages 2011 2012; Hatch,2012 and Kingsnorth, 2012). Responses by REE-using markets included varying combinations of stockpiling, end-user firm requests for product redesign store and substitute REE, and interesting alternative supply of REE via exploration for non-Chinese deposits and recycling.
The Chinese market dominance did not appear overnight:from the mid-1980s to the early 1990s, the Chinese share of global REE production increased significantly from 20 to 60 percent while the US share remained in the range from 30 and 36 percent.This share was exceeded between 1992 and 1995 when China took over the majority of global production from the U.S. Mountain Pass mine (Hedrick,1997; Castor and Hedrick,2006). Other players included Australia, and smaller actors in Brazil and South Africa which were out competed from the mid-1990s until 2000s when China reached 95 percent of the global production share and Mountain Pass operations ceased. Russia and India remained the only other REE producers next to a small contribution by Malaysia (Castorand Hedrick,2006).
Managed & Built by I2M Consulting, LLC | © 2010-
