Rare Earths

The rare earths comprise the lanthanide group of elements on the periodic table. These elements are chemically similar soft and dense metals that occur in low concentrations in the earth’s crust and very rarely as mineable deposits.

Uses

Industrial uses are diverse and include specialty alloys and magnets. For many industries, there are viable substitutes for these metals.

Production

Due to their rarity as stand-alone deposits, they are often obtained as byproducts in the extraction of other metals. Refining these metals is expensive because their chemical similarity. Mineable deposits that do occur frequently contain currently economically worthless radioactive thorium, further compounding the difficulty and expense as environmental regulatory requirements and community aversion to mining such products may exist. The main producer of REE elements is China.

Market Outlook

Given the limited market size, China currently can effectively control the value and access to these metals. However western economies currently in the process of decoupling from China due to geopolitical risk are looking for alternative sources of such metals. Price of companies that own REE deposits will depend on favorable government regulation, community support, and impairment of predatory action by China. The Trump administration supports domestic resource exploitation and so REE companies with US deposits should re-rate if they have not already done so.

North American Market

Many companies endeavour to develop or produce REEs. Some can be found here.

https://www.juniorminingnetwork.com/mining-stocks/rare-earth-element-stocks.html

Pricing

Prices REE metal and chemicals can be found at various sites including the one below.

Symbol	La	Ce	Pr	Nd	Sm	Eu	Gd
$/kg	35	3.36	81	71	10.3	230	206
B$/yr	0.84	0.30		3.5
Symbol	Tb	Dy	Ho	Er	Tm	Yb	Lu
$/kg	998	291	135	300	1800	375	626
B$/yr

https://www.scrapmonster.com/metal-prices/rare-earth

North American Companies