Resumen de EVs and renewables drive rare earths resurrection

Industrial Minerals

• In a sector that seemed beyond hope of revival a year ago, prices for rare earths have been on the rise this year, thanks to renewed demand for the minerals from green energy applications, Rose Pengelly, IM Correspondent, finds.

  Famously abundant but difficult to extract, rare earths have been the mining industry's surprise comeback story of 2017, due largely to a revival of interest in electric vehicles (EVs) and renewable energy.

  Following a spectacular boom in 2010 and bust in 2012, for the past five years the rare earths industry has been characterised by global oversupply, stagnant-to-declining prices, investment scams, and the gradual disappearance of junior mining companies exploring for the minerals.

  This year, however, rare earths prices, which had fallen to levels at which it was barely worth extracting them, have seen a strong recovery - albeit from a historically low base.

  China, whose effective monopoly over the world's access to rare earths and whose decision to halt shipments to Japan in 2010 following a political dispute helped to inflame the supply panic seven years ago, remains by far the biggest global producer of rare earths.

  According to Research and Markets' "China Mining Sector Report 2017/2018", the country still supplies more than 90% of the rare earths traded globally, although other estimates put this figure at over 80%.