european problems a plus for lyc?, page-5

Agree totally with this thread...

Lynas, GWM and MCP... I know there is a good deal of animosity between the share holders of these three companies but the bottom line is that it is important that all 3 of these companies are successful. Take a look at the microprocessor (uP) world when Texas Instruments, National Semiconductor, Fairchild, Intel and AMD all came to market with uP's that filled different roles CREATED by the advent of semiconductor based uP's.

I know it. may be difficult for some to draw these parallels but at least at some level, the commonalities are readily apparent. Companies like Fairchild and Motorola developed industrial based uP's while TI picked up the calculator industry and of course Intel and AMD went after the personal computer market.

My point is that there was plenty of room for all of these highly successful companies in an industry where a nascent technology was trying to establish itself. All of these companies created a demand where none had existed previously and in fact, it was this collective demand that drove and still drives this industry from non existence to where it is today.

Even now the semiconductor / microprocessor industry is evolving and has ignited some very successful players like NVidia, Broadcom the memory chip and bios manufacturers... the list goes on and on.

It is also important to note that NC indicated that "demand destruction" was a challenge going forward. He discussed this in the question and answer period after the conference call. His comments were to the effect that the end users are finding it hard to commit to Rare Earth use in their products when there is no consistent product available at a reasonable yet stable price.

Of course the first mover will probably dominate the IP and experience and be in a position to create spin off companies and possibly other industry segments that will take the RE technologies into the future. The engineers working on these new technologies have already found many new applications using the HREE's even Promethium (radioactive) is finding it's way into nuclear batteries that produce significant power for over 7 years. This is not a pipe dream, the military are using these batteries in satellites...

The near future may be rocky due to political problems (especially in Europe) but before long these things will be worked out and the global economy will be conducive to new technologies and the product that accompany them... JMHO...