Early 1 - you need to understand how these mining companies...

Early 1 - you need to understand how these mining companies receive revenue for their product. They are not selling LME ingots or bars. They receive revenue for metals in concentrate - its called payable metals formulae. It's considerably lower than LME "end product" prices. They only produce concentrate and sell to smelters like Sun Metals in Townsville and others overseas.

Indeed Rare Earths and "Strategic Metals" are of considerable interest as long as the resources are economic (grade, volumes and cost of mining. processing and transport).

Hope the above is of help