Why are REEs in the news?
Why are rare earths in the news? Theres a couple of reasons. Firstly, the move to electric vehicles and clean energy production has increased for REEs around the world we need more of them. Secondly, Donald Trump has kicked off a trade war with China. Its beyond our remit here to talk about whether this is a good idea or not (!), but the recent scaling up of a trade tiff that kicked off in 2018 (the US has recently more than doubled tariffs on $200bn worth of Chinese imports) has heightened awareness around the value of REEs to the US. China has retaliated by increasing tariffs on $60bn worth of US products, including rare earth products from the US company MP Materials whose products are exported to China where downstream processors refine them. Only last week, President Xi Jinping made a stopover at a rare earth processing plant whilst on a visit to Ganzhou. In the light of the US banning Huawei and raising tariffs this should be considered a warning shot that China could retaliate by stopping or limiting exports of rare earth elements to the US. Opinion is divided on exactly how effective a rare earth ban from China would be. Certainly it would have a critical short term impact, but beyond that? Just the recent threat of a ban has seen stockpiles increase with a corresponding increase in related stock prices. American firm Blue Line Corp and Australian mining company Lynas have discussed creating new production facilities in the US. Meanwhile the Mountain Pass rare earth mine in California owned by MP Materials, which until recently has been mothballed, re-started production in January 2018, and could be brought up to speed in a relatively short time. But the mining itself is only one element. The US requires processing to be performed at much higher environmental standards than in China, with a corresponding increase in costs. So whilst a long-term move to US friendly mining and processing could see the US on a much more independent footing, in the short term, there is no easy solution. https://miningir.com/what-are-rare-earth-elements-rees-and-why-are-they-in-the-news/