Rare Earths and other things rare.

 

Lots of things are rare. A few years back while going through some old boxes my wife found two PAR puzzles. PAR puzzles are handcrafted puzzles made from mahogany-backed plywood. Each piece has its own unique shape, arbitrary pieces within a PAR puzzle are in the shape of various “special” characters. In good condition old school PAR puzzles are rare. My wife ended up selling them on eBay shortly after the discovery to the tune of a couple of thousand clams each. Nuts. Turns out those old Powell decks I used to thrash up are worth some coin too, in good shape the vintage slabs go for hundreds even thousands.

This month the "Original Rare Earth Bug" featured a piece by Cindy Hurst of the Asia Times on Rare Earths. The chart was snagged from a Dian Chu piece on Rare Earths last year.

From the Asia Times:

Rare Earth elements (REEs) are the 15 elements that comprise the family of lanthanides on the Periodic Table, plus yttrium and scandium. These metals are vital to the production of hundreds of modern technologies such as cell phones, iPods, computer hard drives, green technologies, and critical military weapons systems. One of Japan’s largest Rare Earth importers estimated that Japan would use 32,000 tonnes of Rare Earths in 2011. Japan used REEs as early as the 1940s when the country first saw their value as polishing agents and began producing lighter flints. By the 1960s, research, development and the use of REEs in the country expanded. By 1973, Japan began producing samarium cobalt (SmCo) magnets. Two years later, Sony was using these magnets in its Walkman radios. In 1982, the Rare Earth Study Association was established. The name of the organization changed to the Rare Earth Society of Japan in 1995. In 1985, Japan began producing neodymium iron boron magnets (NdFeB), which are the strongest magnets available on the market todayand make miniaturization possible. The global demand for Japanese products is whatdrives Japan’s demand for REEs. For example, Japan is a major producer and exporter of sintered Rare Earth magnets and NdFeB alloys, nickel-metal hydride batteries,autocatalysts, digital cameras, fluorescent lamps, and others. The country is also the largest global producer of hybrid electric vehicles (HEV). HEVs contain up to 25pounds (11.3 kilograms) of REEs. For example, NdFeB magnets are used in electric motors because of their high efficiency and lightweight. Lanthanum and cerium are used in the hybrid batteries. Beijing began cutting export quotas for REEs in 2006. By early 2007, Hiroshi Okuda, a senior advisor to Toyota Motor, was concerned enough to begin asking the question: "Is there away we could purchase an entire mine?" Soon after, Toyota Tsusho Corporation, Toyota’s trading house, set out to find alternative sources of Rare Earths by dispatching teams to Canada, Australia, and Vietnam. Other Japanese companies soon followed suit.

As Rare Earth supply is increasingly restricted..

Is a serious run on Rare Earth mines in the cards?

~MV

Hurst, C. (2011). Rare Earth Elements. Asia Times.

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