Last week at TMS 2012 in Toronto there was a lot of buzz about the investment made by the principal Chilean molybdenum miner, Molymet, on American re-startup rare earth mining venture, Molycorp. The questions being asked where mainly of the type “Why did Molymet make such a sizable-for its revenues-investment in a venture apparently not related to

The following essay was written over New Year’s weekend, 2011-12. My theme is that the rare earths supply frenzy has exposed an irreversible shift in the demand/supply picture for all technology materials, not just the metals, but also the energy minerals, and the minerals necessary for agriculture. The only mining ventures today that have the potential to

Special thanks for the following commentary submitted to RareMetalBlog by the United States Magnetic Materials Association (USMMA) and written by USMMA Senior Advisor Jack Lifton. October 4, 2011 -- With recent news this week that the White House may have rushed the approval of hundreds of millions of dollars in Department of Energy loan guarantees to Solyndra

I am today inaugurating an occasional column for the RMB, which I call “Rare Metals in the News” I am a natural resources news junkie, I admit it. I am also addicted to economic news and analysis, and I often find synergy between the two news streams. These days it’s usually economic news coming out of China

Jack Lifton I recently had a private discussion on the merits of a number of rare-earth mining ventures, and how the proposed size of each project (in terms of tonnage in the ground and / or production rate) might affect the overall probability of success. While we agreed on a number of the points discussed, our overall

October 1, 2010 -- (Source: TMR) -- Today’s announcement by Arafura Resources, the Australian-owned and Australia-based rare-earth mining venture that it is in funding talks to raise A$1 billion (US$964 million) to develop its rare-earth mine, served notice upon the world of natural resources’ supply that yet another non-Chinese rare-earth project would need a great deal of

Editor, Jack Lifton -- I’m in Shanghai today; I was in Beijing yesterday, I will be in Tokyo tomorrow and Hong Kong next week. I am teaching a course on rare metals that I put together for CLSA, Asia’s pre-eminent brokerage form. CLSA’s clients are my students. I do not presume to give investment advice to the