Here's a very clever diagram showing how each raw material flows into the various key sectors and how light and heavy rare earth elements (LREE & HREE) tops the supply risk. Surprisingly, copper and nickel are at the bottom. Maybe that's because the anticipation of finding 'economic' reserves in teir1 low risk jurisdictions (sovereign-trusted countries) is greater than that for rare earths elements – 'economic' being the operative word in the rare earths game.
As China (and Myanmar) not only owns the largest reserves but dominates the mining, refining and processing stages of these raw materials, therefore continued reliance on one-source of supply is untenable. Especially, as they have been able to make rare earths a ‘strategic resource’ and have a history of using its exports as a trade weapon.Recent article.
Clearly, low CAPEX projects are rarer than rare in the rare earths space. Koppamurra is a great hope to address the supply in-balance and meet EU and US green objectives. Nevertheless, they should take great comfort in the fact that recent drill results and resource upgrade prove that it is a rare earth mineral province, making it of 'global and multigenerational significance'.
All this means that, Koppamurra should be able to get into production quicker than our counterpart hard rock projects. Thereby, filling looming supply gaps to allow time for others to proof-up their reserves and make production, if they can. After all, we're going to need a lot of it to meet a greener world.
Bring on the OEMs!
All IMO, DYOR GLTA(Patient)H
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