A Private Letter to Gan Yong, President of China Rare Earth Industry Association

Let me confess, we run REE World a global rare earth organization with the most sophisticated REE World Library in the world for subscribers — so when everyone wanted to post news stories about the “other” organization; I immediately wanted to connect with Gan Yong and find out if we couldn’t just join the two together.

Make sense? A global organization should include both the Chinese and the “others”…

So after our analyst Karima Shajani and I blew a few hours looking for a contact email addresss, we opted to do something I have not done in years: write a physical letter, secure postage and mail it.

For the sake of introduction for those of you not in a rare earth organization, the Chinese established the China Rare Earth Industry Association on April 8, 2012 and we have been posting and writing about this news on RareMetalBlog since last week. Additional details are emerging about the association including its membership and leader: The Association consists of 155 members including the large industry players Baotou Steel Group, Ganzhou Rare Earth, Aluminum Corporation of China and China Minmetals Corporation. Gan Yong, an academic at the Chinese Academy of Engineering, is the president of the Association. He is also the President of the Chinese Society of Rare Earths (CSRE) – founded in 1980 as a rare earth scientific and technological researchers’ organization in China. The Association will be reporting to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), which regulates production, according to China’s official Xinhua news agency.

My letter reads as follows:

Tracy Weslosky
CEO
Pro-Edge Consultants Inc.
600 – 80 Richmond Street West
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
M5H 2A4

Gan Yong
President
China Rare Earth Industry Association
C/o Ministry of Industry & Information Technology of the People’s Republic of China
13 West Chang’an Avenue
Beijing, China
100804

April 11^th, 2012

Dear Mr. Yong:

Please accept my congratulations and best wishes on your recent appointment as President of the China Rare Earth Industry Association under the auspices of the Ministry of Industry & Information Technology of the People’s Republic of China.

I would also like to take this opportunity to introduce myself to you given our common interest and professional work in the rare earth element (REE) industry. I am the Publisher and Sr. Editor of RareMetalBlog – the #1 industry source for rare earths, rare metals, & critical metals. I am also Chairman and Founder of REE World Library — a global rare earths, rare metals and critical metals industry organization.

Since the establishment of RareMetalBlog in 2009, our readership has been growing steadily and during the month of March 2012, we reached a milestone of 100,000 unique readers. Our readership includes a global audience of REE academics, industry executives and investors.

The establishment of the China Rare Earth Industry Association on April 8^th, 2012, will have key functions that will directly impact the China’s rare earth industry:

• Proving production guidelines, market research and channels of communications between China’s REE companies and the government;

• Playing a critical role in influencing China’s REE import and export quotas;

• Proactively dealing with trade disputes to guarantee Chinese interests are well represented;

• Being responsible for strengthening communications among REE companies, encouraging mergers and acquisitions in the sector; and

• Improving environmental protection across the rare earth industry.

Given these objectives, I invite you and your colleagues to read RareMetalBlog to gauge what our writers and readers are saying about the REE industry in China and beyond. I would also encourage you join to REE World Library to access the only online database of rare earth industry analyst reports and corporate presentations.