By Clint Cox Last week in Hong Kong, on November 12-14, Metal Events held it’s annual Rare Earth Conference. About 200 delegates participated in this year’s big event. There was representation from all over the world, and across various parts of the industry. Hong Kong was a bit rainy this year, but we didn’t let […]

By Clint Cox Metal Pages and the China Chamber of Commerce for Metals, Mineral and Chemicals Importers and Exporters (CCCMC) put on a fantastic conference in Shanghai on 11-13 September 2013. There were about 200 attendees from about 20 countries, with the largest contingent being from China. The presentations were informative throughout the Conference, and […]

By Clint Cox Please accept my sincere apologies for the delay in posting this year. Regardless of my tardiness, I’d still like to give an outlook for 2011: 2011 should be a pivotal year in many respects. Let’s start with China, the key player… China Consolidation First of all, the Chinese are consolidating their industry, […]

By Clint Cox Below is my commentary on the market from our posting in January of 2010. Following each section I give my assessment (in italics) of how our outlook seems to be holding up with time… Happy New Year! This is more of an exercise in entertainment than it will be informative. There are […]

By Clint Cox Rare earth element (REE) conferences have become so commonplace that it has been said that the people making the most money in this industry are the conference organizers. While it may be true that there are a number of events trying to lure the rare earth crowd, the undisputed industry event of […]

By Clint Cox The recent reduction of Chinese rare earth export quotas is a BIG deal. It’s a HUGE story that reflects the unpredictable nature of this market. The industry is being shaken. There will be clear-cut winners and losers. It may takes weeks and months before things settle. I just wanted to acknowledge this […]

By Clint Cox Today the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) publicly released its eagerly anticipated report entitled “Rare Earth Materials in the Defense Supply Chain”. Although there are no colossal revelations in the report, it is a fascinating read and shows the thorough nature of the GAO. In putting together the report, they contacted: *Department […]

By Clint Cox It was stated at the Technology and Rare Earth Metals for National Security and Clean Energy (TREM) Conference in Washington DC on March 17-18, that there are two modes of energy policy in Washington: 1. Complacency 2. Panic!!! This may prove true for the rare earths as well. Please don’t misunderstand, the […]

By Clint Cox My first rare earth conference of the year was an investment bank conference in Australia in Early February – since then it has been an endless barrage of rare earth conference mania! The SME, Phoenix, February 28-March 3 The Society for Mining, Metallurgy & Exploration (SME) had three technical sessions that included […]

By Clint Cox Happy New Year! This is more of an exercise in entertainment than it will be informative. There are so many different directions the rare earth industry could go this year that it would be foolish to make formal predictions (so please consider anything I say here very informal). Enough tip-toeing, let’s dance! […]

By Clint Cox In January of this year I examined the issues that I believed that the rare earth world would be facing in 2009. Below, I have analyzed my own text (for better or worse) — my current comments are in italics: January 18th, 2009 By Clint Cox Welcome to the New Year! The […]

By Clint Cox Metal Events Ltd’s “5th International Rare Earths Conference” was held in Hong Kong in November 17-19, and was attended by about 170 delegates – a new record for the event. While the delegates engaged in lively discussion over many topics, most seemed to agree on one thing – 2009 was “the year […]

By Clint Cox I apologize for the delay in getting this story posted! Let me start by saying that Infocast’s Conference held October 20-22 in Washington DC entitled “Managing Supply Chain Risks for Critical & Strategic Metals: Rare Earth Metals, Minor Metals, Platinum Group Metals, Lithium” had quite a mix of attendees — end users, […]

The following interview took place on 17 September 2009. CLINT COX: I am interviewing Mark Smith, CEO of Molycorp Minerals, LLC, now a private company. Why don’t we start with when and how did you get interested in the rare earth market? SMITH: Clint, I had the very fortuitous fortune of being a lawyer for […]

By Clint Cox As announced by The Wall Street Journal in an article entitled, “Lynas Turns to Market for Funds After China Deal Sours”, Lynas has found alternative funding for their Mt. Weld project: The miner’s fully underwritten raising is pitched at 45 Australian cents a share and comprises a A$88 million placement to institutional […]

By Clint Cox The Lynas Corporation deal with China Nonferrous Metal Mining (Group) Co., Ltd. (CNMC) is dead. CNMC pulled out of the deal after the Australian Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB) requested that the CNMC stake be pushed below 50% and that they would have less than half of the seats on the board. […]

By Clint Cox The sheer volume of stories being published about rare earths lately has been staggering. I have wanted to include a number of links to these stories, but I realize that it might be frustrating because a number of the sources require subscription. Many of the stories have had a distinctly Western slant […]

By Clint Cox The controversy surrounding the recently released Chinese rare earth policy DRAFT by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) has grown considerably, and I wanted to address some of the issues in a little more detail. Please keep in mind that the document in question is a DRAFT, and it will […]

By Clint Cox It’s late at night and you’re sitting in front of your computer wondering what you can do to expand your brain. Go to the US Patent Office and look up really cool inventions! Search by keyword. A friend of mine got me started on this. Of course, I chose keywords related to […]

By Clint Cox It’s a draft. I feel the need to say this because there are a lot of people saying that the Chinese will prohibit export of certain HREEs as if it is a certainty — but it is not a certainty at all. From the recent press release (from www.chinamining.org) regarding the the […]

By Clint Cox China is the undisputed champion of the rare earth market, but it isn’t sitting on its laurels! Instead, it is steadily trying to streamline and remake its industry from within. Two stories out of China last week indicated that China is in the midst of an industry-wide reorganization. The first story is […]

By Clint Cox How well do we truly understand risk in the rare earth market? Most people who invest in the mining sector understand that there are risks inherent with mining operations. These risks include (but are not limited to): country—will that dictator really allow you to take all those diamonds out of his country? […]

By Clint Cox There are a LOT of companies coming out with rare earth assay results now. REEs have become a hot topic, and many companies are now throwing their assay results into the ring — hoping to become the next contender in the rare earth sector. Assay results are often what companies use to […]

By Clint Cox 1. Rare Earth Elements (REE) come as a by-product from Bayan Obo iron ore operations. The rare earths are so plentiful at Bayan Obo, that until recently, they only recovered a fraction of the REEs. This makes mining the REEs relatively cheap — as long as they mine iron ore, they will […]

By Clint Cox There are many ways to measure the abundance of the elements. We can look at the universe, the solar system, the sun, the moon, the seawater, even the backyard of a guy I know! For example, the moon has a large amount of REEs. According to G. Jeffrey Taylor: The Procellarum KREEP […]

By Clint Cox Rare Earth a “No Show” at WTO!

By Clint Cox All rare earth minerals are not created equal. Some have a light rare earth (LREE) distribution of elements, some are more heavy rare earth (HREE) laden. Some are carbonates, some are silicates, or phosphates. Some have a high percentage of REEs within the mineral, some do not. Some have been processed, and […]

By Clint Cox Is the West just bluffing or is the rare earth industry headed for a bitter showdown? It’s a bit melodramatic, but let’s examine the facts: First, there was the lead-up. The rare earth industry has known for some time that China has supplied the majority of Rare Earth Elements (REE) to the […]

By Clint Cox With this post, I will try a new format. I will attempt to to give brief excerpts of Rare Earth news with links and brief commentary. Please feel free to leave feedback in the “Contact” section. In the midst of relatively stagnant rare earth element (REE) prices and an uncertain economy, several […]

By Clint Cox Welcome to the New Year! The Rare Earth industry is one that has the ability to humble us all — so please view the following comments as “possibilities” and not “prognostications”. Without further adieu, key issues to watch for in 2009: The Economy This is the story for rare earth in 2009. […]

By Clint Cox Back in January of this year, I wrote an article entitled “10 Things to Watch for in Rare Earth in 2008”. Late December seems like a good time to review my thoughts and see how the market played out. Here are the 10 Things with my updated comments after each in italics: […]

By Stanley Trout Often we describe a specific time in human history as an age, such as the age of reason, the bronze age or the middle ages. Many people call the time we live in today the “Information Age” because of the rise and dominance of computers in our lives, and I would agree […]

By Clint Cox The World Resource Conference was held in Vancouver on June 15-16. Cambridge House International put on another great show, with a well-attended show. People commented that it may have been a little smaller than past shows, but there was good attendance on Monday (the second day of the show). There was a […]

Dudley Kingsnorth of Industrial Minerals Company of Australia (IMCOA) answered the following quetions via written response in March 2008. Clint Cox: Please describe the history of your involvement with the Rare Earth industry. Dudley Kingsnorth: In 1990 I was head-hunted by Ashton Mining Ltd (who jointly owned the Argyle Diamond Mine with Rio at the […]

By Clint Cox On February 26th, the rare earth community gathered for an entire morning of REE talks during a special session at the annual SME conference in beautiful Salt Lake City (the Great Salt Lake pictured below). The session was titled “Rare Earths – Mining, Geology, and Metals” and was chaired by James Hedrick […]

By Clint Cox Welcome to 2008! January seems to be a great time for a “top ten” list! These aren’t predictions or forecasts, but merely some thoughts about the things that will undoubtedly shape the rare earth marketplace during this coming year. Here they are, without further adieu, and in no particular order: The economy. […]

By Clint Cox Over 100 delegates enjoyed two days of presentations and networking in Hong Kong on November 4-6. Representatives hailed from all corners of the globe and there were presentations from the UK, China, Japan, Australia, Canada, the US, and Russia. Roskill opened the conference with an excellent description of the history of the […]

By Clint Cox I am just finishing up my short stay here in Hong Kong for Metal-Pages Conference on the Minor Metals and Rare Earths. The setting provided wonderful contrast — the five star Langham Place Hotel set in Mongkok, the most densely populated place on earth: 160 delegates attended the Conference, and there was […]

By Clint Cox I have just returned from the Fifth International Conference on Rare Earth Development and Application in Baotou, Inner Mongolia, China. The Conference was attended by 400 delegates from around the world, but the majority were from Asia. I arrived a day early and was able to spend some time in the Gobi […]

By Clint Cox I interviewed Dr. William H. Bird, President and CEO of Rare Element Resources, on March 4, at the PDAC conference in Toronto. Rare Element Resources was created to develop the Bear Lodge gold/rare earth property in Wyoming. COX: How did you get interested in rare earths? BIRD: Well, my career began as […]

By Clint Cox In 1992, Deng Xiaoping, then ruler of China, put the world on notice with the following statement: “There is oil in the Middle East; there is rare earth in China.” What does this statement mean? We know that oil is crucial for modern civilization – this is no secret. Oil gets a […]