An Interesting article about Rare Earth Elements (Neodymium content)

I think what it always amounts to is that RRE's are not actually rare at all, but just really hard to mine and separate. More recently Japan has been looking to mine them from the ocean at a much better yield than on land. I think the fact that China is overpricing it's exports is simply a wake up call to the rest of the world that they should be mining their own.

In any respect, do you think that Neo speakers would really go down in price? We're still willing to pay the extra money for the lighter weight as of right now. I don't feel that they would decrease in price to back where they were before the inflation. Maybe a little?

 

The only thing to worry about is that they are hella messy to try and extract.

It's why many are still happy paying a premium to China so they can screw thier own land up for profit.

Have to agree that it's unlikely to do anything for speaker prices.

 

Molycorp went from $12 a share to $79 a share in a year about two years ago. It's at $7.50 now. It might be a good time to buy if they're serious about making a go of recovering rare earth elements.

 

Hi.

As an European and as a someone who has a bit more than just a basic understanding about mining and the mining industry, I find the article hilarius rather than interesting. Typical tabloid junk for the masses.

To me, it paints a picture of strip-mining morons with one way mind running the US mining industry.

While that may have been somewhat true 100 years ago when there was an abundance of everything, I find it highly unlikely that's the case today.
All they care about is money/profit/power, and the quest for those leads to inevitable progress.
Even if it means rendering the mining area and its surroundings inhabitable. "By all means necessary" quote from the article sure fits the picture.

If I was a betting kind of a guy, I'd make a bet that the US mining companies know exactly what they have in each and every landfill and heap they have, and some of it may already been re-processed multiple times. And Why wouldn't they, their European and Asian competitors have done so for decades.

Mining industry isn't the stagnant earth shoveling lo-tech industry the article paints it to be, the refining process on many minerals/materials have developed significantly over the last few decades alone. That has led to re-evaluation of closed mines and scrap piles alike.

Take the biological extraction with the aid of bacteria for example, and even that has been around for quite some time now.

As for neodymium mining in US affecting MI NEO speaker prices...
They will most likely raise the prices because everyone knows that US neodymium is superior to the Chinese neodymium

Regards
Sam