Ann: Lynas Presentation to ANU Rare Earths Conference, page-4

Great mines, but perhaps the more appropriate list is Ten big holes: the world's largest open-pit mines (storymaps.com)

With just 25m overburden on top of the entire 3-km wide saprolite zone (a portion of which is current ore reserve) and with that on top of what is thought to be a massive homogenous apatite/carbonatite zone, I'll be dead long before anyone is underground.

I have often said that I believe Mt Weld will one day be on such a list. Just the right sort of combination of deposit and assured demand, as I also believe (as do others) that NdPr will never be replaced. So NOT a fad. No substitute; other REEs like Samarium feature good magnetic properties but are nowhere abundant enough on Earth to support the Green Revolution. I won't be around when they "Put it on the list!!", but I'm hoping to see it in the next ten years.