THORIUM AND THE RARE EARTH ELEMENTS

An Irrelevent Post, Before We Return To Our Regularly Scheduled REE News and Trends.

2011-04-20T20:18:00.000-04:00

Life has its elements of trial and error. You cannot always be prepared for every single contingency -- especially those that are completely beyond the scope of your control. Have a plan. But be prepared to improvise. You can be flexible without being breakable. Learn from the sapling that survives the storm. -DC

Here's an apology. I've learned much from having to make it. Maybe you will learn just as much by reading it.

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Dear Readers (Entrepreneurs, TNNWC Members, Colleagues, Business Leaders, Innovators, Project Managers, Commanders of Growing Companies, Braintenancers, Global Futurists, Internationalists, Marketers, Trend-Watchers, Trend-Setters, and Friends):

Subject: Douglas Castle Apologies for An Annoying Technical Glitch.

Q: Conspiracy or Catastrophic Compound Error?

It's simple. I am not certain whether it was due to a deadly conspiracy involving a collaborative effort among Twitterfeed, Hellotxt and Ping, or whether it was the result of an extremely unlikely catastrophic compound error (Do I sound paranoid? Are you talkin' to me?), but my status updates have been prodigiously posting themselves to many of my blogs without my knowledge or consent.

Since this began two days ago, I have had a "Blue Ribbon Panel" of "experts" working on solving the problem, and after much debate (mostly over who would be responsible to pay for lunches, and how much of a gratuity we should give the delivery kid), they have assured me that the mechanism has been repaired.

I sincerely apologize for any inconvenience that this may have caused you, and I thank you for your patience and for reading me and my guest contributors.

Faithfully, and in the spirit of friendship,

Douglas Castle
http://aboutDouglasCastle.blogspot.com
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Originally published in THORIUM AND THE RARE EARTH ELEMENTS by author Douglas Castle. Mr. Castle is the Chairman and Director Of Business Strategy of TNNWC Group, LLC, with does not have any investments or interests in Thorium or Rare Earth Elements, either as commodities, or in the form of ownership in operating companies.

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2011-04-02T14:51:00.003-04:00

Originally published in THORIUM AND THE RARE EARTH ELEMENTS by author Douglas Castle. Mr. Castle is the Chairman and Director Of Business Strategy of TNNWC Group, LLC, with does not have any investments or interests in Thorium or Rare Earth Elements, either as commodities, or in the form of ownership in operating companies.

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Rare Earth Elements: The United States Government is Increasingly Supportive of Aggressive Domestic Mining of REEs.

2011-02-22T15:25:00.002-05:00

Rare Earth Elements: The United States Government is Increasingly Supportive of Aggressive Domestic Mining of REEs.

Dear Friends:

In the interests of shoring up national security, stimulating economic self-sufficiency and in a move to spur technological innovation and productivity, the U.S. government is becoming increasingly vociferous about the aggressive mining of domestic reserves of Rare Earth Elements ("REEs").

REEs are projected to become an increasingly significant component of the newest generation of technologies, and traditional supply sources of REEs from outside of the U.S., principally from China, are increasingly the subject of political posturing and deliberate trade restriction. The United States has vast untapped but geologically proven reserves of these REEs.

As supplies become threatened and as demand is projected to increase, the United States (through both the private and public sectors, acting in concert) is seeking to accelerate domestic mining and refining of these special metals.

The article below is merely an example of what is already "heating up."

For more information regarding the Rare Earth Elements, their unique properties and their uses, please refer directly to http://thoriumenergyinc.blogspot.com/, where the original posting of this article appeared.

While I do not offer financial or investment advice in any of my blogs, including, but not limited to The Global Futurist, Links 4 Life or Thorium And The Rare Earth Elements, the future appears to be looking increasingly positive regarding companies which own large tracts of land and the associated mining rights for REEs.

Faithfully,

Douglas Castle [ http://www.douglascastleblogosphere.com/ ]

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In Wyoming, push to mine rare earths in US forest

By MEAD GRUVER, Associated Press Mead Gruver, Associated Press Sun Feb 20, 12:13 pm ET

SUNDANCE, Wyo. – A Canadian company hoping to compete with China's near-monopoly of rare earth elements — metals critical for everything from U.S. military weaponry to wind turbines — wants to open a strip mine inside a national forest in northeast Wyoming.

Processing raw ore into rare earths is an intensive operation that has been associated with radioactive water spills. But with China slashing exports of rare earths and Washington concerned the U.S. military could face a shortage of materials for lasers, smart bombs, guided missiles, night-vision goggles and jet engines, Don Ranta is optimistic about his Black Hills National Forest mine proposal.

"Everything we've seen so far looks very, very bullish for it to be a commercial project," said Ranta, CEO of Vancouver, British Columbia-based Rare Element Resources. If approved and if it goes into production, the mine would be located about 15 miles from Devils Tower National Monument, the nation's first national monument.

For its particular combination of rare earths, Wyoming's Bear Lodge Mountains rank close behind a mine at Mountain Pass in southeastern California as North America's best verified source of the minerals, said John Kaiser, editor of the Kaiser Bottom Fish website, which tracks global metals markets and mining companies.

"In the long run, I think it will end up being even bigger than Mountain Pass," Kaiser said.

Rare earths are 17 minerals used to make many products that didn't exist all that long ago. Neodymium is used to make magnets in the electric motors of hybrid cars. Europium goes into compact fluorescent bulbs.

Rare earths with critical military applications include samarium, used for super-strong samarium-cobalt magnets that help steer guided missiles. The General Accounting Office, Congress' auditing arm, reported in April that the Navy's Aegis Spy-1 radar, expected to be used for 35 years, uses samarium-cobalt magnets that will need replacement during the system's service life. Defense contractors use China-supplied neodymium magnets in motors used to build fuel-saving hybrid electric drives for U.S. Navy destroyers, the GAO reported.

Rare earths aren't scarce. But few places exist with enough concentrations to mine profitably, and they are difficult to isolate in a purified form.

Cheap labor and low environmental standards enabled China to dominate the rare earths market starting in the 1990s, and the country currently supplies 97 percent of the world rare earths market.

But even as demand soars for rare earths, China is cracking down on rare earths smuggling and cutting legal exports. Together, that will reduce the global rare earths market by 25 percent.

The result will likely be dramatically less rare earths on the global market, Kaiser said, until new sources can be mined.

"That's going to cause a serious problem for users outside China," he said.

Global rare earths prices have soared in recent months, in some cases up to six-fold. In January, President Barack Obama signed a defense spending authorization ordering Defense Secretary Robert Gates to ensure U.S. access to rare earths.

Mountain Pass is the only U.S. mine producing rare earths. Mining there ceased because of heavy Chinese competition in 2002 and only resumed in December amid the much-improved market outlook.

In 1998, Greenwood Village, Colo.-based Molycorp Minerals Inc., operator of the Mountain Pass mine, paid a $410,000 fine after being accused of spilling 350,000 gallons of wastewater from the facility. The water contained lead and radioactive elements including uranium and thorium.

A $500 million reconstruction of the mine, begun in January, will produce rare earths more cheaply by recycling and reusing processing acids, according to company spokesman Jim Sims. He said the technique would allow lower production costs than the Chinese, "with a dramatically smaller environmental footprint."

Other potentially important untapped rare earths reserves exist in Quebec, Canada's Northwest Territories and Alaska, Kaiser said.

Rare Element Resources doesn't immediately plan to refine ore into rare earth oxides at the Bear Lodge Mountains, which could add $150 million to the project's $87 million estimated cost, Ranta said.

He suggested Molycorp could for a time process the Wyoming ore, enabling his company to focus on the first significant commercial mining operation in Black Hills National Forest since the World War II era.

For a Wyoming mountain range, the Bear Lodge Mountains are obscure — barely over a mile high. Both Devils Tower and the rare earths deposits are relics of volcanic activity 40 million to 60 million years ago.

Rare Element Resources' strip mine would be up to 500 feet deep, though Ranta, a geologist, said that would be small compared to the vast strip mines 60 miles to the west that produce much of the nation's coal.

His company has secured 16 square miles of mining claims inside the forest and plans to continue drilling sampling holes after seeing promising concentrations of rare earths in samples taken last year, Ranta said.

Talk about rare earths mining has drawn little attention in Wyoming. But environmentalist Nancy Hilding, president of the Prairie Hills Audubon Society of western South Dakota, said mining companies often fail to protect groundwater as promised.

Any national forest development is subject to intensive review, said forest spokesman Frank Carroll. The Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality also would need to approve a mine. It has taken no position on Rare Element's proposal.

The final feasibility study for the mine is not expected until the end of 2012.

"Let's start producing rare earths in the United States so that we start having a self-sufficient supply," Ranta said. #### [End AP Article]

Tags, Labels and Terms: Rare Earth Elements, domestic mining, economic recovery, rare earth metals, economic self-sufficiency, Lemhi Pass, emerging technology, emerging China, US government policy, commodities markets, geology, TNNWC Membership, Blogs by Douglas E. Castle, The Global Futurist Blog, Links 4 Life Blog, TNNWC Blog, rare earth oxides, changing global balance of power, US National Security, energy independence.

Originally published in THORIUM AND THE RARE EARTH ELEMENTS by author Douglas Castle. Mr. Castle is the Chairman and Director Of Business Strategy of TNNWC Group, LLC, with does not have any investments or interests in Thorium or Rare Earth Elements, either as commodities, or in the form of ownership in operating companies. Become a Member of TNNWC Group (at no cost or obligation) to receive these reports - Just click on http://www.tnnwc.com/ and join us.

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2011 Forecast Alert - Revised and Refined - THE GLOBAL FUTURIST

2011-02-10T08:00:00.000-05:00

Note to my Readers: The article which follows was first published in THE GLOBAL FUTURIST BLOG. I thought it a good idea to share it here because of the tremendous implications for globalism, peace and prosperity, as well as its references to Crowd Funding, fuel and resources and collaboration. Admittedly, the news does not appear positive, but, as stated in the article itself (paraphrasing), "Every catastrophe opens the door to new possibilities". -DC

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2011 Forecast Alert - Revised and Refined - THE GLOBAL FUTURIST

Dear Friends, Colleagues, TNNWC Members and Fellow Futurists:

Much is happening very quickly. Signs of trends are fairly easy to recognize, and extrapolating these trends (subject to constant fine-tuning and to the vagaries of events which are unpredictable by today's best available science, i.e., typhoons, etcetera, science.

When the rate of change accelerates, this makes the sport/game/science/art of prognostication more complex -- and requires much more frequent analyses to accommodate and increase in the number and volatility of variables. Preparing your personal, business and financial affairs for a hailstorm of successive rapid changes is quite a challenge. Here are some immediate hardships and opportunities directly ahead within the next 3 months to 12 months.

This is not economic, tax, business, financial, investment, legal or health advice. It is merely a statement of the point of view of Douglas Castle (http://aboutdouglascastle.blogspot.com/) .
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1. Tremendous increasing instability in the Middle East and Northern Africa, brought about through the revolution in open Social Media and citizen journalism. While the citizens and servants of various monarchies, dictatorships and despotic regimes are calling for increased administrative transparancy, democratic government reforms and greater freedoms, these media-emboldened masses are not merely fighting in a world of ideas; they are in a massive power struggle -- extremist religious groups, fickle government military forces, and the escalating threat of chaos (instead of coalition) amkes the outcome of these brushfire revolutions unclear. Several things are certain, though, with the perception of threats to the security of the Suez Canal and the Straits of Hormuz, on top of increasingly negative revelations about bansk and financial institutions worldwide and rapid changes in the weather worldwide -- from record-breaking snowfalls, to flooding and the resurgence of such diseases as cholera.

2. Skyrocketing oil prices worldwide, especially in the United States. Expect oil at $120 - $160 per barrel before year-end, with gasoline at $5.00 gallon at the pumps. This will increase unemployment in all western economies, and increase profits for the major international oil companies.

3. ETFs and other investments in Southeast Asia, Brazil and India will outperform most if not all alternatives worldwide.

4. Prices of agricultural commodities will increase precariously worldwide, and to a slightly lesser, but significant degree in the United States. The disparity between household income and regular living expenses will drive many U.S and other citizens and servants worldwide into poverty, with all of its horrific side-effects.

5. There will be heavy lobbying in the United States for an expanded military budget, despite current rhetoric about troop withdrawals and scaling down the defense budget. In a panic response to fear of international instability and the never-ending "War On Terror" (there's an oxymoron!). The military budget will be increased, and significantly. Companies involved in "country rebuilding" (trained mercenaries with state-of-the-art weaponry, ready to be deployed to whatever troubled part of the world management dictates) will prosper - Hail Halliburton, Blackwater and their ilk. They will profit intensely while The U.S. and other governments nefariously convert national funds toward "subcontracting" fights -- this is indeed a crafty way for the government to camouflague tremendously increased government spending. Much of this will be at the expense of education and the public welfare.

Your might find my most recent article in THE INTERNATIONALIST PAGE BLOG to be of considerable interest in relation to the above Alert.

Additionally, on the horizon:

In the United States, individual states will be testing their "right to declare bankruptcy" in the courts, in a tug-of-war with a very expensive and fiscally irresponsible government. This will not bode well for state workers or for the prices of municipal bonds;

Social networking sites and platforms will increase their data-gathering, data-mining and data-selling efforts, revenues and control of the media, in general. They will be glorified (Facebook) and demonized (Facebook);

Privacy will become a growing industry. Weapons sales (private sector, both legal and illegal) will increase worldwide. Online reputation management and protection will become a growing industry. Internet intelligence-gathering (web-scraping, aggregating) will be a growing industry. Alternative forms of agriculture using alternative forms of energy (non-fossil fuels) will become the subject of greater interest;

Crowdfundings and micro-fundings (private) will increase dramatically in popularity;

Radical climate change and extreme weather will continue to increase all agricultural commodity prices, and many of the insurance companies that provide various insurances against the risks associated with "bad growing seasons" and the like will be fighting to stay alive by disputing a plethora of claims from angry, injured insureds.

Please stock up on potable water -- it will be in decreasing supply. Some technological investment opportunities will emerge in the interest of curing a global drinking water shortage.

Faithfully,

Douglas Castle

THE GLOBAL FUTURIST - http://theglobalfuturist.blogspot.com/

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Originally published in THORIUM AND THE RARE EARTH ELEMENTS by author Douglas Castle. Mr. Castle is the Chairman and Director Of Business Strategy of TNNWC Group, LLC, with does not have any investments or interests in Thorium or Rare Earth Elements, either as commodities, or in the form of ownership in operating companies.

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Off-Topic Post International Leadership - The New Paradigm - 01.14.2011

2011-01-19T19:20:00.001-05:00

International Leadership - The New Paradigm at 14th January, 2011

Article from The Internationalist Page (http://TheInternationalistPage.blogspot.com) written by author Douglas Castle, Chairman of TNNWC Group, LLC.

Dear Friends, Futurists, and Internationalists:

During the course of these past three years, the entire world has seen and experienced an economic tsunami, a crisis of trust and faith in the most venerable institutions, and a growing divide between those few powerful persons in positions of authority and those many persons who constitute the masses.

The masses have universally become disenfranchised and distrustful of those in positions of authority and power. The members of the suffering masses are feeling either helpless or restless -- but few are trustful or happy with the status quo.

There is a new tie that binds all of those citizens of The Internationalist Community, The Global Village and the Human species -- we are all sharing a crisis of confidence, and a lack of qualified, trustworthy leaders with vision and true integrity.

There is a high probability that some of those currently in power, those currently insulated and ensconsed within the protective palaces which they have built by the sweat, toil and suffering of the barely-subsisting majority will be displaced within these next one to three years.

New leaders will no longer be able to depend upon sovereignty, patriotism, empty rhetoric and hate-mongering to unite the masses behind them and to keep their power. The Internet, the entropic economy and the mysterious changes in the dynamics of the weather have made those safeguards of bygone times a virtual (pun intended) impossibility.

New leaders, in addition to technological mastery and expert advice, will be required to exhibit qualities which the older, dying "guardians by divine right" have never had to bring to the fore.

New Leadership will have to demonstrate a genuine alignment with the populations for whom they are responsible, as well as those same populations to whom they will now have to be accountable. New leaders will have to serve their followers instead of merely stealing votes and money from them based upon half-truths and blind faith.

There will still be a use for weaponry and shows of military strength -- but these will now have to be tempered with a heartfelt passion for their followers, as well as for the causes, organizations and nations which these leaders will lead. There will be a need for empathy, as well as a desire to dominate and control.

New leaders will be tasked with not only leading, but with caring for their constitutents, adherents and followers. The metaphorical muscle of the heart, long neglected but often abused, will have to be strong in these leaders. In sum:

"The Greatest Leaders Must Have As Deep A Love For Their Followers As They Do For Their Sacred Ideals And Objectives." -- Douglas Castle

My borrowed time here has led me to believe that Love can be a strength as well as a weakness. Do not underestimate its power and role in enlightened leadership. -- DC

Tags, Labels, Terms: leadership, leadership paradigm, internationalism, love as strength, power, the global future, qualities of leaders, accelerated breakthroughs, Douglas E. Castle, TNNWC, blogosphere, seizing and holding power, a change in the weather, enlightened stewardship, management, wisdom, a new zeitgeist, a new spirit, uniting nations, uniting peoples, GICBC, a world without walls, management transparency, sincerity, integrity, self-growth, business growth, economic growth, prosperity, peace, Braintenance, Lingovations, Technullity, Gistation, The Internationalist Page, The National Networker Weekly Newsletter, metamorphosis, the next generation, uniting elements, leading from the heart, trends, business forecasts, political forecasts, visionaries, codes of ethics, suicide notes embedded in blogs, borrowed time, repentance.

THE INTERNATIONALIST PAGE http://theinternationalistpage.blogspot.com/

Originally published in THORIUM ENERGY AND THE RARE EARTH ELEMENTS by author Douglas Castle. Mr. Castle is the Chairman and Director Of Business Strategy of TNNWC Group, LLC, with does not have any investments or interests in Thorium or Rare Earth Elements, either as commodities, or in the form of ownership in operating companies.

Successful Culture + Successful Conduct = Strong National Economy

2010-12-26T22:11:00.002-05:00

Successful Culture + Successful Conduct = Strong National Economy. What have the former "giant nations" lost? http://bit.ly/Growth101 #news

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Originally published in THORIUM ENERGY AND THE RARE EARTH ELEMENTS by author Douglas Castle. Mr. Castle is the Co-Chairman and CEO of TNNWC Group, LLC, with does not have any investments or interests in Thorium or Rare Earth Elements, either as commodities, or in the form of ownership in operating companies.
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China Is Making The Rare Earth Elements Rarer - This Is The Furtherance Of An Expanding (And Expansionist) Trend.

2010-10-21T18:30:00.000-04:00

China Is Making The Rare Earth Elements Rarer - This Is The Furtherance Of An Expanding (And Expansionist) Trend

Dear Friends:

As Delilah is said to have replied to Sam(p)son [the "p" is silent] when he asked why she had betrayed him with a nefarious nocturnal crewcut (knowing full well that his long locks were the source of his strength), "Darling, how could you have given me such great power and expected me not to use it?"

He probably knew by her response that 1) they would not be "an item" for very long, and 2) that when you give people power (in this case, telling her the secret source of his legendary strength), they will generally make use of it -- if not for some evil end, just for the sake of experimentation.

The Chinese have had their growing economic and political power reaffirmed publicly by the global community, just as the other members of the global community are confessing to one another (with China listening but trying not to smile) about all of their economic problems, areas of need, fears and shortages. China is, as one might expect, is feeling the exhilaration of acknowledged power and is flexing its muscles internationally. This is a typical and traditional show of power.

Recently, as it has become increasingly apparent that the Rare Earth Elements are growing in demand and shrinking in supply, China has exploited this information by curtailing its exports of REEs to Japan, and by quietly but steadily closing off the spigot of supply to Europe and to the United States.

The result will likely be an rapidly growing increase in the value and pricing of the Rare Earth Elements (learn more about them at http://ThoriumEnergyInc.blogspot.com) and a growing international hostility (actually a combination of envy of China's fiscal health and resentment of the dependency on the part of so many nations upon China's consumerism and resources).

Expect further chest-thumping on the part of China, and growing fear, insecurity and resentment of China by its G-20 counterparts. We are headed for the Global domination of the World by China during the course of the next several years. And of course, the more dominant the Chinese become the more they will be hated.

This makes me nostalgic for the early 1990s in the United States.

In the longer-term, China will likely push hard enough to inspire some productive reform in the economies of the other "once great" nations; but until that time, expect a great deal of business to be centered about China (out of temporary necessity), but for an almost palpable bitterness toward the country and its culture.

It's lonely at the top.

Faithfully,

Douglas Castle for THE GLOBAL FUTURIST at http://TheGlobalFuturist.blogspot.com

p.s. A news story from The New York Times follows:

October 19, 2010

China Said to Widen Its Embargo of Minerals

By KEITH BRADSHER

HONG KONG — China, which has been blocking shipments of crucial minerals to Japan for the last month, has now quietly halted some shipments of those materials to the United States and Europe, three industry officials said this week.
The Chinese action, involving rare earth minerals that are crucial to manufacturing many advanced products, seems certain to further intensify already rising trade and currency tensions with the West. Until recently, China typically sought quick and quiet accommodations on trade issues. But the interruption in rare earth supplies is the latest sign from Beijing that Chinese leaders are willing to use their growing economic muscle.
“The embargo is expanding” beyond Japan, said one of the three rare earth industry officials, all of whom insisted on anonymity for fear of business retaliation by Chinese authorities.
They said Chinese customs officials imposed the broader restrictions on Monday morning, hours after a top Chinese official summoned international news media Sunday night to denounce United States trade actions.
China mines 95 percent of the world’s rare earth elements, which have broad commercial and military applications, and are vital to the manufacture of products as diverse as cellphones, large wind turbines and guided missiles. Any curtailment of Chinese supplies of rare earths is likely to be greeted with alarm in Western capitals, particularly because Western companies are believed to keep much smaller stockpiles of rare earths than Japanese companies.
China experts said on Tuesday that Beijing’s assertive stance on rare earths might also signal the ascendance of economic nationalists, noting that the Central Committee of the Communist Party convened over the weekend.
A few rare earth shipments to the West have been delayed by customs officials in recent weeks, said industry officials in China, Japan and the United States. But new restrictions on exports appear to have been imposed on Monday morning.
Industry executives said there had been no signal from Beijing of how long rare earth shipments intended for the West would be held by Chinese customs officials. A few shipments are still being allowed out of the country for reasons that remain unclear: a fourth rare earth industry official said on Wednesday that one of the 32 authorized rare earth exporters in China had been allowed to export one container of rare earths to the West on Tuesday and hoped to be allowed to ship another on Thursday.
China’s official stance remained unclear on Wednesday. In an apparent reference to a report on Tuesday in the official China Daily newspaper, the commerce ministry said the report, predicting a decline of up to 30 percent in rare earth export quotas next year, was “totally groundless and purely false,” and added that no decision had been made yet on future quotas.
Without mentioning whether customs officials were interfering with statements to the West this week, the statement also said that, “China will continue to export rare earth to the world, and at the same time, in order to conserve exhaustible resources and maintain sustainable development, China will also continue imposing relevant restrictions on the mining, manufacture and export of rare earths.”
Japan’s Kyodo news agency reported on Wednesday that an unidentified diplomatic source in Beijing had said that rare earth shipments to the United States and Europe were being held up by customs officials for tighter inspections, one of the explanations that customs officials have also given in blocking shipments to Japan for the past month. But John Clancy, the trade spokesman for the European Commission, said in a statement on Wednesday that, “at this time, we cannot confirm claims made by European industry officials in media reports of China blocking rare-earth shipments to the” European Union.
The signals of a tougher Chinese trade stance come after American trade officials announced on Friday that they would investigate whether China was violating World Trade Organization rules by subsidizing its clean energy exports and limiting clean energy imports. The inquiry includes whether China’s steady reductions in rare earth export quotas since 2005, along with steep export taxes on rare earths, are illegal attempts to force multinational companies to produce more of their high-technology goods in China.
Despite a widely confirmed suspension of rare earth shipments from China to Japan, now nearly a month old, Beijing has continued to deny that any embargo exists.
Industry executives and analysts have interpreted that official denial as a way to wield an undeclared trade weapon without creating a policy trail that could make it easier for other countries to bring a case against China at the World Trade Organization.
So far, China seems to be taking a similar approach in expanding the embargo to the West.
Wang Baodong, a spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, said on Tuesday that the Chinese government was putting new restrictions on the mining, processing and export of rare earths to protect the environment. But he said that China was not violating any W.T.O. rules in doing so and that it was not imposing an embargo or trying to use rare earths as a bargaining chip.
“With stricter export mechanism gradually in place, outbound shipments to other countries might understandably begin to feel the effect,” Mr. Wang said in an e-mail. “But I don’t see any link between China’s reasonable rare earth export control policy and the irrational U.S. decision of protectionist nature to investigate China’s clean energy industries.”
Nefeterius Akeli McPherson, a spokeswoman for the Office of the United States Trade Representative in Washington, said that American trade officials were looking into the matter, after a report of the Chinese customs restrictions was published on Tuesday afternoon on the Web site of The New York Times.
“We’ve seen the news report and are seeking more information in keeping with our recent announcement of an investigation into whether China’s actions and policies are consistent with W.T.O. rules.”
Jeremie Waterman, the China director of the United States Chamber of Commerce, said that he was still checking government and industry sources to learn the extent of a suspension of Chinese rare earth shipments. “If it’s true, it’s disturbing news to say the least,” he said.
Mr. Waterman said that rare earths were so important to advanced manufacturing that restrictions on their trade might need to be put on the agenda of the Group of 20 meeting of heads of state, scheduled next month in Seoul, South Korea.
The Chinese government office that oversees rare earth policy, which operated with considerable independence for many years, was moved early last year into the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. That ministry, formed only two years ago to draft plans for global leadership in many industries, has emerged as a bastion of economic nationalism.
Despite their name, most rare earths are not particularly rare. But most of the industry has moved to mainland China over the last two decades because of lower costs and steeply rising demand there as clean energy industries have expanded rapidly.
Congress is considering legislation to provide loan guarantees for the re-establishment of rare earth mining and manufacturing in the United States. But new mines are likely to take three to five years to reach full production, according to industry executives, although existing uranium mines may be able to move faster by reprocessing previously mined material, which often contains rare earths.
China reduced in July its export quota for rare earths for the second half of the year by 72 percent. Exporters had only six weeks’ of quotas left when China imposed its unannounced embargo on shipments to Japan.

Hiroko Tabuchi contributed reporting from Tokyo. ####
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Douglas Castle

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Originally republished in THORIUM ENERGY AND THE RARE EARTH ELEMENTS by author Douglas Castle. Mr. Castle is the Co-Chairman and CEO of TNNWC Group, LLC, with does not have any investments or interests in Thorium or Rare Earth Elements, either as commodities, or in the form of ownership in operating companies.The article orignally appeared in THE GLOBAL FUTURIST.

Rare Earth Elements Shortage Could Slow Technology Growth And Increase Prices.

2010-10-15T15:04:00.001-04:00

The article which follows was excerpted from COMPUTERWORLD.

You're reading about it on http://ThoriumEnergyInc.blogspot.com -- an independent informational resource about Thorium and the Rare Earth Metals (REEs).

---------------

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Rare metals shortage could blunt gadget growth

By Michael Kan

October 6, 2010 07:15 AM ET

IDG News Service - Imagine a cellphone the size of a shoe. Or a laptop weighing 10 kilograms.

That's what we would be carrying around today, if not for the rare earth metals, a group of materials with unique properties that have enabled the miniaturization of electronic components including capacitors, lasers and powerful magnets.
From computer hard drives to hybrid cars, many of today's high-tech devices rely on components made with rare earth metals to properly function. But demand for those metals is beginning to outstrip supply, forcing governments and manufacturers to find new sources of raw materials.

The rare earths are a group of 17 metals including neodymium, used in magnets, and erbium, used in lasers.

Countries such as the U.S. have long possessed their own sources for rare earth metals, but despite this they have turned for their supplies to China, where mining costs have been cheaper and environmental rules more lax. This has made China the world's largest producer of rare earth metals, mining more than 90 percent of global demand, analysts say.
China's tightening control over supplies became apparent last month when media outlets reported that it had stopped exports of rare earth metals to Japan following a diplomatic spat between the two countries.

"What China's action has done is create uncertainty," said Dudley Kingsnorth, a rare earth metals expert at the Industrial Minerals Company of Australia. "Undoubtedly people will diversify their sources of supply to reduce their reliance on China. But that can't happen overnight."

Japan, a major importer of rare earth metals, is actively exploring for new sources in Canada and Australia, as well as looking into recycling old electronic devices as a way to create new supplies of the materials.

The U.S. Congress is working on legislation, passed by the U.S. House of Representatives last week, to revitalize U.S. sources of rare earths. But China's dominance over the rare earths market will likely continue for the next two to three years, as manufacturing firms are forced to depend on limited supplies and dip into their stockpiles, Kingsnorth said.

Demand for the rare earths has long been expected to accelerate. Some projections suggest that demand could nearly double by 2015, with hybrid car engines and wind turbines big drivers behind the need.

Looking narrowly at costs, a shortfall in rare earth metal supplies might mean just a minimal price hike, or no increase at all, for the electronic gadgets that use them, analysts say. This is because many of these products only contain tiny quantities of rare earth metals.

"Something like a laptop computer probably only has got about 50 to 80 cents' worth of rare earth in it," Kingsnorth said. "Even if that tripled in price, it won't stop people from buying it." ####

Observation from Douglas Castle: Without these REEs, much of present and planned future technology would be impossible. The fact that REEs only constitute a small percentage of the price of technologies. If supplies should become inaccessible, or if the market were to become dominated by a handful of players/investors, The Rare Earth Elements would become more expensive per ounce than gold. Start thinking ahead.

Faithfully,

Douglas Castle

p.s. You should also be reading THE GLOBAL FUTURIST, at http://TheGlobalFuturist.blogspot.com

Originally published in THORIUM ENERGY AND THE RARE EARTH ELEMENTS by author Douglas Castle. Mr. Castle is the Co-Chairman and CEO of TNNWC Group, LLC, with does not have any investments or interests in Thorium or Rare Earth Elements, either as commodities, or in the form of ownership in operating companies.

Please visit my new blog. If you like what you see, there's much more. Visit/ Subscribe: http://MadMarketingTactics.blogspot.com Thanks. -DC

2010-10-13T00:00:00.002-04:00

Please visit my new blog. If you like what you see, there's much more. Visit/ Subscribe: http://MadMarketingTactics.blogspot.com Thanks. -DC

Originally published in THORIUM ENERGY AND THE RARE EARTH ELEMENTS by author Douglas Castle. Mr. Castle is the Co-Chairman and CEO of TNNWC Group, LLC, with does not have any investments or interests in Thorium or Rare Earth Elements, either as commodities, or in the form of ownership in operating companies.

What Percentage Of Your Time Do You Spend Thinking About Money? - TNNWC MINI-SURVEY #9

2010-10-12T17:18:00.002-04:00

Cousin Ruprecht always says: "I like surveys. They're fun." Sadly, he is still institutionalized, despite a notable improvement in his table manners and exceptionally high marks regarding his personal sanitation habits. (sigh). But I digress...

TNNWC MINI-SURVEY #9 OPENS!

$$$...?

TNNWC MINI-SURVEY #9: Thinking About Money...

The survey question is a very simple one but has implications which dramatically affect every single one of us, and the quality of our lives:
Q: WHAT PERCENTAGE OF YOUR WAKING TIME (ON THE AVERAGE) DO YOU SPEND THINKING ABOUT/ WORRYING ABOUT COVERING YOUR LIVING EXPENSES AND PAYING BILLS?

Give it some serious thought before you select one answer from the choices below. Include any of those times when you may be consumed with worries about college tuition, refinancing your home mortgage, outliving your retirement funds, and the like -- in other words, any time that you are distracted by thoughts of your financial obligations.

The polls for this survey will close at midnight, Eastern Time, on November 20th, 2010.

To access the survey, click on:

https://ciof.wufoo.com/forms/tnnwc-minisurvey-9-thinking-about-money/

The results will be posted EVERYWHERE!

p.s. To Join Us at TNNWC Group as a Member (at no charge), and to receive your free $200.00 bonus MINI-MEDIA BUZZ BLITZ, just visit

http://www.TNNWC.com. This offer may be terminated by TNNWC Group at any time.

Faithfully,

Douglas Castle

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