Rare Earth Prices now more than $100,000 per ton

[Sparty]

Reuters reported on Tuesday that the Chinese raised the price for rare earth metals past the $100,000-per-ton mark -- the first time ever that the price per ton has vaulted into the six-figure range.


According to Reuters, that's an almost ninefold increase from a year ago, and recent prices are up an astonishing $34,000 per ton in the last month alone.

China's announcement on Tuesday is nothing new. The country has raised rare earth prices by $10,000 per month since last July (when a ton of the metal cost a "bargain" price of $14,405).

At the same time, China has also been reducing its exports of rare earth elements since last year. Why? Because its ultimate goal is to keep all the rare earths it produces as they have a very low amount per capita, unlike countries such as Australia and Canada.

Australia is probably the world's richest in terms of REE resources per head of population. (If we include ASX: GGG's Greenland deposit)




The Western Challenge to China

As commodity guru Rick Rule likes to say, "The cure for high prices is high prices."

And that is why ASX listed companies such as Lynas Corp, Alkane Resources, Greenland Energy and Minerals, Arufura resources etc are pulling out the stops to get into production ASAP.


LYC will be the first new play in the world to produce refined RE Metals and Oxides


Not too surprisingly, shares of rare earth companies outside of China's stranglehold soared on the news.

[Sparty]

This link takes you to an interesting article re stockpiling REEs.

It provided me with several lines of thought.