Lynas to talk with Malaysians on rare earths refinery

People in Kuantan, Malaysia are holding a petition to stop the rare earth refinery. Lynas is to send an official to talk with them, the Sin Chew Daily reported.

The two sides talked before, but did not agree on effects of radioactive elements, the report said.

The local development authority is to give more seminars to the public in April, the story said. 

link: 就稀土提煉與民眾交流‧澳Lynas總公司派員來馬

Muddled rare earths data

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/24/us-china-rareearth-idUSTRE72N0X720110324Reuters and WSJ gave different data in both export volume and prices:

WSJ: China’s export of rare earths in Jan and Feb: 7,084 metric tons (up 0.3% than last year). China’s first half export quota: 14,509 metric tons

Price: $44,461 a ton on average (almost doubled last year’s average $23,603)

WSJ: Rare earths stay hot 

Reuters:

Export 750 ton in Feb. 647 in Jan. (That is 1,397 tons).

In Feb: 281 tons went to Japan, valued at $38.9 million or $138,406 per ton.

Prices in February: $109,036 “on a free on board basis”. Rare earths price in July last year: $14,405 on average

Reuters: China rare earth prices explode as export volumes collapse 

A possible explanation could be different data they use. WSJ cited data from "Hong Kong-based Economic Information & Agency, which publishes statistics it gets from China's General Administration of Customs". Reuters calculated its own data, because: “China’s Customs office changed its method of presenting rare earths exports in its headline data this year, boosting the reported volume by including products made from rare earth metals in the total.”

 

Rare earths smuggling in Ganzhou, Jiangxi

sum a few points in an interesting story about illegal mining in Jiangxi: “稀土王国”赣州每年超采2万吨 盗采1吨赚10万

In Ganzhou, Jiangxi, the government is regulating rare earths as regulating drugs and gold.

The local government assigned one company to be in charge of mining in the whole city. This company is incapable of mining around the city itself, therefore illegal miners are the ones in control.

The official quota is 8,500 tons of rare earths oxide per year. The actual output is 30,000 tons. Illegal mining takes the bulk of it, at about 20,000 tons.

Illegal mining is mainly driven by high profit. The price of rare earths is 150,000 yuan per ton, five times as much as the 30,000 yuan cost.

The rare earths elements in this region are the most sough after heavy rare earths, including: Yttrium (钇), dysprosium（镝）and terbium（ 铽 ）.

Rare Earth - from a Chinese villager’s point of view

A few points from Xinhua's story: Rare Earth, a blessing and curse for Chinese villagers

Huangsha village, Jiangxi,

Curse: 1) Trees on hills were toppled and topsoil removed, toxic chemicals pumped into drilled holes to refine the metals; 2) Water turned bluish-green, with yellow mine tallings piled on its banks. The river used to be the source of irrigation and habitat for fish and shrimp. Not any more. 3) Output of agriculture was low, and the area near the river harvest nothing.

Blessing: Pillar industry for the local government, contributing 40 percent of its fiscal revenues. The villager earn 50 yuan a day from the mines when he is less busy with farming.

The neglected change and dilemma in China’s rare earths policy

Most of the media reportings on this topic assume China’s policy is to control the metal market based on a long term plan. They could be wrong. There is a dilemma in China’s policy on the industry that is overlooked.
In contrast with its export control, China was worrying about the decline of rare earths metals trade in 2009, according to a report on the website of Ministry of Industry of Information Technology:  China's export of rare earths metals dropped significantly during the first 11 months of 2008 (2008年前11个月我国稀土金属出口明显下降)
The volumne of rare earths metals export dropped 56.1% year-on-year, and that of rare earths alloys went down by 75.5 %. “The trend is that the export is dropping even faster,” it says.
It then analyzed the reasons for the decline.
First, the government has started to impose more control on rare earths trade since 2008. It reduced quota and raised taxes for the export of these minerals.
Second, demands for rare earths dropped as industries such as magnetic materials, computer and toys slow down.
Third, supply surpasses demand. Prices and profitabilities of companies therefore drop.
There are a couple of interesting points here.
First, nobody mentions China’s rare earths import, but it looks to be an important part of the overall policy. The report says it start to control imports of rare earths products since 2008 by listing them into a catalogue on processing imported materials.
Second, it mentioned domestic demand, which is a factor behind its export too.
For instance, the article says:
“For a long time, domestic rare earths enterprises have strong motivation for expanding capacity, but domestic consumption increase is flat due to limits in technology. ”
“As domestic rare earths output keep increasing, exports and foreign consumption drops, but domestic demand is unable to expand rapidly and efficiently, therefore prices of rare earth drop significantly. ”
“The drop of export prices make the profitability of some rare earth enterprises decline sharply,” it says in the end.
Only two years later, the senerio looks totally different. It does not always like this. It won’t always look this either.

Lynas and Molycorp

 Lynas and Molycorp, both claim they have the world's largest rare earth deposit outside China, are busy.
Lynas is defending itself after NYT reported on the environment concerns of its refinery in Malaysia. It told AP the effects of exposing to the radioactive elements is less than that of using a cellphone. The NYT story said locals connects a rare earth refineries before with birth defects and leukemia. AP: Malaysia monitors Aussie rare earth plant
Molycorp released its quarterly report. Its loss narrowed, sales soared nearly ten fold, the company said in a statement. It also said China might become a net rare earths importer in four years in a statement. Business Week: Molycorp Says China May Be Net Rare-Earths Importer by 2015
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From a mine to an iPhone

There is a long way to go between finding a rare earths deposit and using it in iPhone. For instance, the rare earths reserve of Lynas lies in Mount Weld on the desert of western Australia. They have to be shipped to Fremantle, a port on the west coast of Australia first, then travel through the India Ocean to Kuantan in northern Malyasia, where they will be processed and refined.

Right now 2,500 construction workers are working on the project, which will be the first rare earth ore processing plant outside China in nearly three decades. Lynas is spending $230 million on it, according to the New York Times.

Cost is the main reason for the 2,500 miles trip of the ores, which are radioactive. The construction and operation cost in Australia would be four times as much as it is in Malaysia, the report cited Nicholas Curtis, Lyna’s executive chairman, as saying.

The NYT also ran a story on another rare earth refinery: the one Bukit Merah of Malaysia, operated by the Mitusubishi Chemical, is now one of Asia’s largest radioactive waste cleanup sites.

Link for the NYT story is: Taking a Risk for Rare Earths

View rare earths in Asia in a larger map