rare earths in bloomberg article

New Mines
While rare-earth prices have fallen, demand will outpace supplies even with new mines in California and Australia expected to come online in 2014, Smith said.

“Like any market, you’re going to see up and down in the course of a month or two,” Smith said. “But the overall trend remains short supply, heavy demand.”

The ability to substitute many rare-earth applications will be limited, said Constantine Karayannopoulos, CEO of Neo Material Technologies Inc. (NEM), a Toronto-based producer of rare- earth magnets.

“All kinds of folks are trying to use alternative technologies,” he said by phone. “Longer-term, don’t expect these technologies to be in place this quarter or the next.”

GE’s Duclos says he has little doubt companies will find substitutes, sooner or later.

“It will depend on the element, it will depend on the usage, but getting 10-20 percent efficiencies out of the usage of an element is not that terribly difficult,” Duclos said. “What I don’t subscribe to is this idea that there’s nothing we can do.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Sonja Elmquist in New York at [email protected].

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Simon Casey at [email protected].