Anatol, You are obviously a great Data-miner and have a good...

Anatol, You are obviously a great Data-miner and have a good depth of information on many of the markets players. But I strongly disagree with your statement that you can not compare a REE miner to a Gold miner, in the long run all it comes down to is economics. No matter what the commodity is so long as there is a demand for it sooner or later somebody will find a way to fill that demand, (at a price). Even the Greenie's pariahs "Uranium" and "Coal" will continue to be in demand until the day somebody comes up with cost efficient alternatives, Why ? because they are still the cheapest way to produce base load energy.

The economics of Mining do not differ much between commodities, yes methods vary but as I said "in the end it all comes down to economics" ~ Gold mining once used to be a simple matter of gravity separation of very high grade ore, as new processes were discovered they allowed lower and lower grades to be economically extracted so that today we see cut off grades approaching 0.1g/t which was almost unheard of just 20 years ago ! NdPr is not so dissimilar to Au, the mining process is identical, so is commutation and even the floatation process is similar the only difference being the chemicals used. When it comes down to end product why would a REE miner want to own a very expensive refinery ? Gold miners very rarely own/operate Refineries ~ they produce and sell Dore bars which can be anywhere between 10 - 99% pure.

So looking at the economics of NdPr we can see that Demand can not help but sky-rocket, because we all know that it is GOOD for the environment as a whole, as it helps remove those nasty CO2 producing petrol guzzling cars; and visionaries like Elon Musk are going to make sure that we all have a chance to help clean up the environment by buying a Tesla electric car. Already people WANT to own a Tesla they are becoming the status symbols of the 21st century. Demand has only one way to go ..... UP.

The Supply side of the equation is governed by Politics and Geology, Firstly there needs to be a willingness to make money, Angola has already demonstrated this by promoting its Oil industry, it also has a lot of inhabitants that still need the basics of life ~ education, sanitation and a full belly. They also are fairly well in with the Chinese who have made some rather large investments in the country, and while the Chinese do have a long term view to "Returns" you can be sure that they will be more than happy to encourage a Country capable of exporting a much sought after commodity to it to do so.

I almost forgot Geology, you have to have it before you can sell it, and Angola/Pensana appear to have it in Spades, it is even "Weathered" which is nice because it makes it easier/cheaper to dig and process, a few dollars in the scheme of things and good for a quick start but I wonder what the grades are like in the pipe that apparently fed this system ? and does anybody know if NdPr are subject to Supergene enrichment ?

Lastly, Yes Australia is sitting in a good position to supply, but sadly while our Politicians are behove to the Greenies who hold the balance of Power nothing is going to happen very quickly, Greenies hate holes in the ground, in fact Greenies hate most things Industrial even when it could help clean up the environment, the one thing that may sway them is the opportunity to buy a cheap Tesla