looks like demand for rare earths picking up, page-26

further evidence of demand ??? for those that are interested

this article was taken from the internet

LONDON (Metal-Pages) 17-Feb-14. The consumption of rare earths from the magnet sector has been lower than was anticipated some years back according to a report by Materials Technology Publications though demand is picking up again. However, a separate report from Australia's Lynas corp warns that potential dysprosium shortages could threaten continued growth.

According to UK-based researchers Materials Technology Publications the permanent magnets sector is the largest single consumer of rare earths, and demand is expected to grow by an average of 8.5% a year over 2014-2017.

Though this is still a strong growth rate it has nonetheless been dented by less-than-expected demand from applications such as wind turbines and hybrid and electric cars – the two main users for rare earth magnets.

Many countries have dramatically reduced state support for the development of alternative technologies though China remains strongly committed.

The main rare earth elements used in high-strength permanent magnets are neodymium and praseodymium along with dysprosium and terbium.

There had been fears that there would be significant shortages of dysprosium for rare earths magnets, which hasn't happened. But consumers – particularly Japanese companies – have developed technologies enabling them to substantially reduce the amounts required, while retaining most, if not all, of the advantages gained from the dysprosium additions.

Dysprosium shortages threaten growth potential

However, Australian rare earths producer Lynas Corp identified concerns over secure supplies of rare earths and in particular dysprosium as a potential constraint to demand growth. In a presentation prepared in December and seen by Metal Pages the company said demand growth from the permanent magnets industry is partly subject to further reducing dysprosium needs.

Many magnet makers have already substantially reduced their dysprosium requirements and have eliminated it completely from a few formulations. But despite these efforts there are risks that there isn't enough dysprosium available to support demand growth. Lynas for instance expects the Nd FeB magnet market to grow at a compound 10% a year during the period 2012-2020.

But those assumptions are based on 'uninhibited' supplies of rare earths and in particular of dysprosium. Nearly the entire world supply of this element currently comes from China.

Lynas estimates that for the rare earths permanent magnets sector to carry on growing at 10% a year average dysprosium content in rare earths magnets will need to fall to 0.8% from 1.8% now – assuming no new supplies of the element become available.

There are a number of junior mining companies around the world racing to bring new rare earths to the market and some do have small amounts of dysprosium. The more advanced projects are expected to come online before 2020.

However, they are reliant on the vagueries of stock market funding, putting in place relatively expensive and complex processing technologies and could well come into production much later than anticipated or not at all even.

Strong demand already seen for permanent magnets

In the meantime, there is already evidence of strong demand for rare earths magnets. China, which makes 75% of NdFeb magnets with 22% made in Japan, exported 18,825 tonnes of rare earths permanent magnet in 2013, up 15.2% compared with 2012