treo percentage

TCMR: Why do you support a neodymium-equivalent measure of resources versus a percentage of total rare earth oxides, or TREO?

LM: It’s very simple. Deposits that have gold and copper often have a smaller percentage of gold grade than copper, but you do not base your analysis solely on that. The size of the resource and grades count but the price of gold versus copper is also very important in assessing the economics of the project. It’s no different for the rare earths. Some of the prices of these elements, like some of the most obscure ones like thulium, a heavy element, have historical prices above $2,000/kg. Then you have other elements like lanthanum and cerium, which are historically cheaper and two years ago had prices below $10/kg. A neodymium-equivalent approach shrinks the differences within grades and better expresses the differences in prices.