Fellas,
RareEarths Are Not Earths and Not Rare, But…
Thesemetals, contrary to what their name suggests, are fairly widespread in theearth’s crust, on an equal footing with certain common metals as a group.Individually, the odds are different. Cerium is abundant, but dysprosium,thulium, and lutetium are respectively scarcer. To classify them better,especially for investment purposes, rare earths fall under the generaldesignations of light (LREE) and heavy (HREE).
Cerium andlanthanum are part of the LREE subset of rare earths. They’re more easilyobtained and commonly used to make phosphors for screens, lenses, and somemagnets. Neodymium falls into the LREE also, but it’s less frequently found. Itmakes powerful magnets, including the ones that allow your cell phone to vibrate.HREE’s are the top prize of a rare-earth mining project. If aprospective REE company wants to make a big stock market debut, it will surelycite the HREE potential of its ores as well as the “ease” with which these canbe extracted from the ore.
Molycorp, which eventually filed for Chapter 11bankruptcy in 2013, was one of America’s hopes for rare earth independence. Butits products were the less-strategic cerium and lanthanum metals. What wouldhave made a difference for Molycorp, allowing it to thrive, would have been theavailability of the HREE dense ores. These are the kinds that yield dysprosium,which has huge demand. It is simply irreplaceable in numerous hi-techapplications.
Molycorp suffered from poor administration andover-selling. It spent a considerable sum and became overly indebted. In 2008, Chevron Mining Inc.sold the Mountain Pass mine to Molycorp for some $80.0 million. Molycorplater opened for trading on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) at$14.00/share in 2010. It only took a year for Molycorp to hit $79.16/share anda $6.0-billion market cap. It was forced to delist in 2015 as shares went downto $0.20.
The former Molycorp is now Neo Performance Materials.It’s a penny stock, and it’s one of many REE mining companies.
2017.)
Today, thetop rare earth mining companies don’t necessarily make for the best rare earthmining stocks to watch. That’s because the top REE producers are Chinese. Theyinclude China Minmetals Corporation, Aluminum Corporation of ChinaLimited, Inner Mongolia Baotou Steel Rare-Earth Hi-Tech Company, andChina NonFerrous Metal Mining (Group) Co., Ltd.
Anyfuture growth in rare earth mining will likely derive from miners startingproduction from projects being developed beyond China. Those projects aremostly in Australia, some in Africa, and a few in Europe. But North America hasstrong potential with projects in the United States and Canada, especiallyQuebec. That said, most of the rare earth stocks 2017 trade in Canada andAustralia.
RareEarth Miners Stock List to Watch for Future Growth
Rare Earths Miner
Symbol
Exchange
Iluka Resources Ltd.
ILU
Australia
Galaxy Resources Limited
GXY
Australia
Lynas Corporation Limited
LYC
Australia
Alkabe Resources Limited
ALK
Australia
Cornerstone Capital Resources Inc.
CGP
Canadian Venture
Wealth Minerals Ltd
WML
Canadian Venture
Kidman Resources Ltd
KDR
Australia
Critical Elements Corp
CRE
Canadian Venture
Greenland Minerals and Energy Limited
GGG
Australia
Northern Minerals Ltd
NTU
Australia
Hudson Resources Inc.
HUD
Canadian Venture
Ucore Rare Metals Inc.
UCU
Canadian Venture
Oklo Resources Ltd
OKU
Australia
Midland Exploration Inc.
MD
Canadian Venture
Strategic Metals Ltd
SMD
Canadian Venture
Hastings Technology Metals Ltd
HAS
Australia
Texas Mineral Resources Corp
TMRC
OTCMKTS
Rareearth minerals stock prices have gotten so low that most—if not all of the oneslisted above—are considered penny stocks. Nevertheless, those who see thepotential of rare earths and other strategic metals do have reason foroptimism. Because GME, has HREE.
