China's RE self-image; Algae and RE; Kerala radiation; 2023 RE quota; China Northern's deal with Baotou and new project; MP's Q4 call; Lynas's license drama; And Reenova again

Rare Earth 23. March 2023

Mar 22, 2023

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The further a society drifts from the truth, the more it will hate those who speak it. (Selwyn Duke)

//Politics

About China, the main producer and main market for rare earths:

China: The Party continues to swallow the state

The plan on reforming Party and state institutions came out Thursday, and it is very meaningful. In the best case scenario this should give Xi and Party Center much better control throughout key parts of the system, to improve policy coordination and implementation, and perhaps in the financial sector better prevent and control risks.
There is still a lot we do not know, and at least one new institution, what the abridged Xinhua English report calls the “social work department of the CPC Central Committee” but which shares the same name in Chinese - 中央社会工作部 - as the original Central Social Affairs Department founded in 1936 and first headed by Kang Sheng, could function as an additional system of control down into the grassroots. And as you will see from the translation and additional commentary in item 4 below, its mandate may not inspire confidence in the private sector, or in other sectors given the echoes of the early days of Mao’s rule.

Sinocism has a long history of correct calls.

Promote industrial development, introduce high-end talents, and accelerate the development of the entire rare earth industry chain

The overall scale of China’s rare earth industry is large, but the added value is not high. It is mainly low-end products, and the end products that reflect the high value of rare earth resources are highly dependent on imports. To this end, national ministries and commissions such as the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Natural Resources, and the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council are actively promoting the high-quality development of the rare earth industry.
Xia Wenyong, vice governor of Jiangxi Province, said that rare earth resources are key mineral resources for global competition.

This is very good view of China Inc’s self-image. The inherent imbalance of rare earths, by and large output is defined by ~70% ‘as cheap as cabbage’ lanthanum and cerium, rests heavily on the industry and drags down the average added-value of the industry.

To add insult to injury, the high-added value rare earth products are dependent on imports of raw material, as the self-supply rate of some majors in China’s rare earths is really low, as low as 20%.

The view from the top, the vice governor, is that RE are the key to global competition.

He is right. The US$10 billion rare earth industry enables world output of products worth trillions of dollars.

Rare earth indicators are about to be issued, what is this and what is the impact?

According to the Shanghai Securities News, the first batch of rare earth mining and smelting indicators will be issued this year. In 2022, the total control indicators for the first batch of rare earth mining, smelting and separation were 100,800 tons and 97,200 tons respectively, both of which were 20% higher than the same batch in 2021. It is expected that the growth rate in 2023 will slow down.
In the short term, China International Finance Securities believes that the current operating rate of some magnetic materials companies has reached about 80%. At present, long-term orders are the main ones, and the number of new orders is not large. The current inventory is relatively sufficient. There is no excessive purchase plan for the time being.

Our call for the first batch 2023 quota is +14%. We deduce this from the raw material purchase announcement of China Northern and Baotou Steel (see below in the companies section).

Europe Balks at Strategic Stockpile for Critical Green Metals

Securing resources for the energy transition and aerospace and defense sectors has become key for authorities after the pandemic and invasion of Ukraine disrupted supply chains. A December study for the European Parliament recommended that the EU follow nations like Japan and South Korea by creating a strategic stockpile with the private sector that could be tapped if imports are interrupted.
That could involve buying between €6.5 billion ($7 billion) and €26 billion of reserves, the study concluded.
But draft legislation seen by Bloomberg and due to be presented to politicians this week shows the EU will instead monitor nations’ inventories and make non-binding “opinions” about strategic purchases if needed. The proposals may still change and also include plans to boost mining, processing and recycling of key materials used in renewables, electric vehicles, aerospace and defense.

China’s National Food and Strategic Reserves Bureau makes good money with metal stockpiling. They buy when prices are low, in order to support the market, and they sell when prices are strongly rising (on shortage), in order to support the market.

Warehousing cost and interest charges don’t really matter to them.

But why learn from the masters?

N.B. The Bureau made some half-hearted attempts in rare earths, but did not stockpile, as far as we could see.

Idaho and Montana Rest Atop Incredible Mineral Riches

As we’ve recently seen in Nevada, the environmentalists will be fighting every proposed mine tooth and nail. How do they plan to reach their goals? Do they believe in magic? If you want cheap electric cars, you need minerals. You also need to stop treating the rest of the planet as your colony, where you can despoil the land and enslave the children.
However, if you’re adamantly opposed to turning even one shovel in the United States, let’s drop the green revolution charade and admit you’re simpletons and anarchists.

This is the exact same situation the first-world over. But describing the “opposition” like this does not really help. They are idealists who want to live their dreams, oblivious to profane reality and brutal fact and thereby seemingly inaccessible.

It takes a learning curve, like the one of Germany’s Green Party currently experiences as member of the German coalition government. Once rude awakening after another.

The US should get serious about mining critical minerals for clean energy

But the United States seems particularly stuck. Both President Biden and former president Donald Trump have called for mineral supply security. Yet, in 2022, domestic metal mine production was 6% lower than in 2021, and mineral imports reached a record high, according to the US Geological Survey. The nation remains 100% dependent on imports for 12 critical minerals, including manganese, niobium (used in steel alloys) and tantalum (for electronics). Opening new mines takes time, but no momentum has built up so far.
Instead, the United States has courted both allies, such as Australia and Canada, and countries with controversial domestic-labour policies and environmental standards, including Zambia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. China has benefited from the uncompromising US opposition to domestic mining and has built up a formidable dominance in critical metal extraction and processing over the past 30 years. It wants to maintain that momentum. According to US cybersecurity company Mandiant, pro-China agents have even posed online as local US activists in attempts to spark protests over rare-earth mines.
In the United States, the best first step out of the impasse would be to set up a new sustainable-minerals bureau.

As we said before: A one-stop solution might be a good idea.

It can not be that an aspiring miner has to deal with a multitude of government agencies separately and spend a decade or more filing here and there.

Meanwhile our exceptionally generous benefactors in China cook up stories to incite often naïve environmentalists. Fantastic.

India Rare Earth (IREL):

Background radiation high in Kerala, but no risk, says study

The Indian Rare Earths mining area at Vellanathu Thuruth in Kollam Source: The Hindu

The present study found that the average natural background levels of gamma radiation in India were 94 nGy/hr (nano Gray per hour) (or roughly 0.8 millisievert/year). The last such study, conducted in 1986, computed such radiation to be 89 nGy/hr. 1 Gray is equivalent to 1 Sievert, though one unit refers to radiation emitted and the other to biological exposure.
However, the 1986 study measured the highest radiation exposure at Chavara, Kerala at 3,002 nGy/year. The present study found that the levels in the Kollam district (where Chavara is situated) were 9,562 nGy/hr, or about three times more. This computes to about 70 milliGray a year, or a little more than what a worker in a nuclear plant is exposed to.
The higher radiation levels in Kollam are attributed to monazite sands that are high in thorium, and this for many years, is part of India’s long-term plan to sustainably produce nuclear fuel. Southern India, because of the presence of granite and basaltic, volcanic rock has higher levels of radiation from uranium deposits.

This may not sound very comforting to stakeholders.

Ministry of Industry & Information Technology (MIIT) - Department of Energy Conservation and Comprehensive Utilisation

"Energy-saving services into enterprises" and the on-site meeting held to promote the motor energy efficiency improvement plan

Participants exchanged ideas on the application and development trend of high-performance motor drive technology, the demand and supply of raw materials for high-efficiency and energy-saving motors, the R&D and production of motors such as magnetic levitation high-speed permanent magnets, and R&D and production of reluctance and other motors without rare earths, the promotion and application of high-efficiency and energy-saving motors, and collaborative innovation of the industrial chain. A symposium was held around the implementation of the "Plan", and an on-site visit to the ultra-efficient motor production project of Jiamusi Electric Co., Ltd.

Jiamusi Electric Machinery Co. Ltd. is the home of the National Explosion-proof Electrical Engineering Technology Research Center under the Ministry of Science and Technology. They have an English website.

Thorium Energy Alliance signs up El Salvador

El Salvador takes another step towards diversifying its energy matrix by signing an MOU agreement with Thorium Energy Alliance for the development of the El Salvadorian Energy Bridge plan for deployment of civilian nuclear energy. With the aim of implementing new, more efficient, and environmentally friendly forms of energy generation for over 6 million Salvadorans, the Government of El Salvador and Thorium Energy Alliance have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to promote the "El Salvador Energy Bridge" plan for renewable energy through thorium.

We are not sure if thorium molten salt reactors (TMSR) should qualify for the term ‘renewable energy’.

In our understanding also the TMSR requires partial uranium feed. Nonetheless, this type of reactor, conceptually and pilot developed in the 1950-1960s, deserves a chance, considering what pressurised (heavy) water reactors have almost done to the world.

Also it would be a good outlet for the mountains of thorium piled up from rare earth production, i.e. the fuel would be very cheap.

A startup in the US, as well as China and India with their TMSR pilot programmes tend to agree:

//Science

GBCA dose drops significantly in breast MRI thanks to machine learning

The use of synthetic images could reduce the amount of gadolinium-based contrast agents needed for breast MRI examinations, according to new data published this week in Radiology.
According to the new paper, these images are the product of a generative adversarial network (GANs)—a type of machine learning framework that involves two neural networks that contest with each other in the form of a zero-sum game.

Blue-green algae bind rare earth elements

Biosorption involves capturing substances in solution on the surface of a cellular biomass. The method has been well-studied in the context of wastewater remediation to separate chemicals, drugs and heavy metals. The ability of blue-green algae, or cyanobacteria, to adsorb metal ions on their cellular surface is a well-established example of biosorption. “Therefore, we investigated novel cyanobacterial strains that have not been part of extensive research and were part of our ongoing strain collection and discovery efforts to identify new potential biomass producers for biosorption materials,” said Brück.
The research team measured the ability of 12 strains of cyanobacteria to adsorb four different rare earth elements—lanthanum, cerium, neodymium and terbium. These cyanobacteria were isolated from a variety of environments, including terrestrial, freshwater and saltwater, across Africa, Europe and North America.
Moreover, these laboratory-scale experiments need to be advanced to industrial levels and tested with actual wastewater samples from manufacturing sources.

//Events

Critical Minerals, Automotive and Government Leaders to Participate in the CMI Summit II in Toronto, Canada on June 14-15, 2023

REIA 2023 Annual Conference and General Assembly

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