My long term memory of school chemistry disagrees with you here...

My long term memory of school chemistry disagrees with you here . The announcement referred to Neodium metal, not the oxide. I am fairly certain you will find that Neodium is worth something like 100 times its weight in gold. You can notice the difference in the pictures between the metal ingot and the oxide powder. It is like comparing rust with an iron bar for example. The term alloy refers to the presence of other metals mixed with it, not a big deal to remove compared with a chemical process such as separating an oxide.

An interesting comment is that this process uses 45% less energy than the current ways of producing the metal form. I don't know the current method details but assuming energy is the biggest cost then this process will be significantly more profitable than is currently, so the metal price does not tell the whole story. Just like with gold miners the AISC or similar is more important for profitability than the gold price. The metal price is not going to go below the lowest production costs.

Just some thoughts