mail and guardian - africa

Article of interest:

http://mg.co.za/article/2012-03-30-rare-earths-the-new-frontier

....Countries scamper for resources
But countries want to secure supplies of rare earth elements because they are increasingly treated as a strategic resource.

Most of the industrial majors outside China—Japan, South Korea, the US, Europe and Australia—have all declared rare earths strategic metals, according to Kruger.

As South Africa ramps up its green-economy drive, including efforts to develop sustainable technologies locally, rare earth elements are likely to become increasingly important.

Although they did not discuss rare earths in detail, recently released ANC policy documents on state intervention in the minerals sector noted that “increasing political interest in the industrialised countries has been focused on metals such as — the rare earths” that “have a relatively low economic value but are difficult to substitute and play a strategic role in the economy of these countries”......