rare earth minerals

Are these ASX stocks set to rise this year? Apparently Australia has one third of global deposits.

Recently I've been trying to purchase USBs through work and the price over the last few months has gone up by about 25 pcent. Now some could blame the slow down on Chinese New Year, but I wonder if other market forces are at work.

Last year it was reported that China couldn't keep up with rare earth supply demand ie iPhones, computers, TVs etc since the 90's when they had the monopoly on these materials.

Given how reliant we are on these gadgets these days, particularly our smart phone devices, I wonder whether this could be the next boom area for mining in this country.

I know these stocks were in favour a few years ago, but have been on a decline since, but I wonder.

Your thoughts would be appreciated..

Your thoughts would be appreciated..