I feel the more a read about critical minerals / rare earth and...

I feel the more a read about critical minerals / rare earth and the whole supply chain the less I am convinced and optimistic about it.There are so many steps from the mining stage to the end product i.e magnets. There are few videos on Youtube from InvestorIntel with Jack Lifton named Rare earth Supply challenge 1-2-3-4. They are worth watching. My guess is that because they are working in that industry, they are trying to spruik the word around through those videos but it had the complete adverse effect in my view. Even more depressing than what I thought.

To summarize the whole supply chain and the economics of it, there are 6 stages between mining and magnet. Before we were focused on step 1 mining then selling cheap to China, because only them can do the rest, they control the whole supply chain blab la bla…. Now, we are focusing on downstream and rare earth separation technology with Rapid SX. But if successful, we will only control stage 1 and …..stage 2 of the 6stages….Then…..it will end up in China anyway. Now apparently with 20+ year of experience in china their whole process to end product is pretty slick. Why would China pay more for a separated refined better product if the can do it themselves for lets assume the same price….? (ok, apart from the fact It will save of freight and logistics cost as less volume)

I am willing to accept the idea of made in America, but it has to be the made in America final product or nothing. If the 1 last step is made in China then the whole show is over as it will have to be at Chinese price.

Happy to learn more from others