Lynus MC is $5.43B, page-49

I may value them less than you at present - the broader market seems oblivious most of the time !

Many factors to consider and quite extraordinary economic conditions over the last 15 years

I agree the RE industry is more than shovel and sell especially given no real exchanges exist dedicated to each RE mineral

The RE space for me is a fascinating mix of political, military, consumer product, technological, environmental, technical and economic interests and factors

HAS is surely well placed at present ticking many boxes and probably undervalued which is why my sentiment is buy and I am now a shareholder

My introduction to the nature of Rare Earth mineral minng was in 2010 when a geologist friend explained to me that they are in fact not usually rare at all. The barriers have always been around finding deposits with high enough mineral concentrations to make them economically feasible and then efficient recovery and production of oxides through separation.

These challenges gave rise to the title Rare Earth minerals and he told me the largest producer and processor was not afraid to cut health, safety and environmental corners for competitive advantage and control

I am a scientist and work in Biotechnology - It's an exciting industry for researchers, medical practitioners and patients, however it is also largely pushed and pulled by economic and political forces - sometimes more so than patient needs or ethics. It can be a demoralising industry for those that don't try to understand the complexities of patient care, funding of hospitals, healthcare, research, ethics, clinical trials and the massive cost and risk of trying to develop a safe and proven product to market - most scientists are buried in their own projects and how they are going to break new ground and secure future funding for further research and development

There's plenty of hype and promise in science, technology and business that often amounts to not much - thank goodness for ASX continuous disclosure rules !!!

Even with such rules it can be difficult to form a complete, accurate and up to the minute picture of each company and their future prospects - before even considering macro economic and political conditions and possibilities

Luckily it's a challenge I enjoy

LYC is a benchmark especially now they are effectively in partnership
with USA DoD who are subsidising Texas plant construction and softening the blow of exiting Malaysia

It was fascinating to see the politics play out in Malaysia and WA especially with Wesfarmers poking around in the mix - lobbing a takeover bid on the back of previous JV talks with Lynas for Australian based processing and storage of byproducts, some of which were to be repurposed. The amount of radioactive waste scare mongering and misinformation was almost comical

HAS, VML and ASM are all on the cusp of competing with Lynas and helping to shift RE sources and markets away from the existing monopoly