Quote from article Pacific and central North Pacific, finding rare-earth concentrations of about 0.2 percent. At that concentration, they reported, just 1 square kilometer of sea-floor mud could provide one-fifth of the world's annual rare-earth consumption, making it a "highly promising huge resource for these elements." Without context, though, that kind of statement is misleading, says Frank Sansone, an oceanography professor at the University of Hawaii, Manoa. "It's not just something that you can glibly say, 'Oh, this is a huge amount of rare earth,'" he says. "It would be difficult to exploit. There's a big difference between saying that the elements exist in large amounts and being able to appropriately, economically and environmentally extract that material." John Wiltshire, director of the Hawaii Undersea Research Laboratory, also at the University of Hawaii, Manoa, puts it even more bluntly. "The truth of the matter is, nobody's going to mine in the deep seaeven if somebody massively funds thisfor a minimum of a decade," he says. The startup cost could run from $1 to $2 billion. ................................... The question, then, for any company that would seek to lease these areas (from the Pacific nations which possess the rights) and mine rare earths from the ocean bottom is: Is it worth all this trouble and expense? At 0.2 percent concentration of rare earths, the deep-sea deposits pale in comparison to ore deposits on land, which can have 5 to 10 percent concentrations. All things being equal, it's easier to collect minerals from mud than from ore. But things are not equal, because this mud is beneath three miles of water. http://www.popularmechanics.com/sci...metals-will-stay-right-where-they-are-for-now
There are already mining companies listed on the asx trying to exploit resources under the ocean, not just oil but Gold and others.
if you believe the hypothesis that the pacific basin was gouged out from a collision with a comet/asteroid in the earth's primordial past then it would make sense to look there for "rare earth" elements
I've been watching Lynas ever since I sold my holdings above $2. They are experienceing a delayed reaction to weakness in the energy metals sector. ARafura (ARU) Greenland Minerals (GGG) Territory Uranium (TUC) - this one came off a lot due to it being an uranium explorer primarily Alkane Resources (ALK) - primary resource is Zirconium but also have Gold and HREE have all experiences a sharp correction in their share price, the fundamentals for REE is intact and they are still good purchases if you can time the market well. Lynas (LYC) is down now to where I first bourght in about 10 months ago. I have an ichy buy finger for it at the moment. Lynas has a resource grade of about 10% REE (mainly light rare earths) which is a higher grade than Molycorp and the other advanced near production REE mines. They also have the only plant outside of China (I belive Molycorp are also building one) to refine and seperate REE which is a non-trivial process. James Dines has gone on record as saying that he sees panic buying of REE producers in the next 5 years. I have just clarified with a Geologist the claim made by some at Lynas that the presence of Uranium or Thorium has a deleating effect of REEs and my Geologist friend said that is untrue, so it looks like there is some corperate attempts to discredit other REE deposits like Arafura who have a large Thorium resource with their REE. Lynas was targeted to hit $3.00 but never made it only got to $2.70 before all the problems and the asx correction. If you are a value investor i recomend you have a look at Lynas, Arafura, Alkane and Greenland Minerals.
There may be some ranting from the other side but GGG has gotten 100% ownership of the K-field deposit. As far as I know they resolved the legal stuff with a issueance of shares, then the malicious company wanted to have a majority possition on the board which would have effectively tranferred ownership (they only owned about 5% of the issued shares), so this other side is malicious and stupid. I'm pretty sure it didnt go anywhere shareholders were suppose to vote (but I sold my holdings before that time) - I havent heard anything since about it.
If i had of seen Lynas at 1.20 I would have bought - but I think waiting is a good idea. Tonight Ben is making a speach which could change the market and if ASX200 dumps some points I may be able to pick it up for $1 - $1.20, if its in this range I'm a definate buyer, id love to see it come back to the 0.90s but I dont know if that will happen, then it might trade under the $1.50 resistance for a while depending on market conditions. Then again it could keep marching down like the rest of the REE and Uranium stocks... take a look at Paladin (PDN) over the last year. Thats another one im looking at for a buy.
Bought Lynas today, might have been a bad idea, we'll see Alkane got down to 1.15 today - they have 600k ounces of Gold (at a projected cash cost of about $960 per ounce) as well as Zirconium, HREE and Ytrium Probably should have bought Paladin instead - but its done now
Sold out of ALK at 1.80 a little while ago as I had a bad feeling about the DFS. Both ALK and LYC seem like great value at these prices though.
I agree - I have another buy order in for just under $1 for Lynas - I hope it doesnt need to get filled but just in case.
Get ready for a sea of red tomorrow. Lower your lynas bid. I reckon it could go lower.... 86c but im not going for RE. Going to buy more gold equities. Temporary flight to the USD... lets see how long it will last....
Ouch my portfolio hurts.... cancelled my order for $1 Ill use the money to cost average down Conquest (CQT)
SVL dropped massively.. but i wouldnt touch it atm... CCU is looking mighty worth it at these prices... 74c LOL. Bargain. Remember the japan earthquake... knee jerk reaction.
