Laut John Moody von FoxNews plant der US-Republikaner Duncan Hunter, diesen Monat ein Gesetz einzubringen, wonach das US-Militär Seltenerdmetalle (REEs; "Rare Earth Elements") beziehen muss, die in den USA produziert werden - auch wenn dies bedeutet, diese Industrien zu subventionieren. Er sagte:
“Dies ist von kritischer Wichtigkeit für unsere nationale Sicherheit und Fähigkeit, vor allen anderen zu bleiben. Seltenerdmetalle sind entscheidend. Wir haben in meinem eigenen Staat Kalifornien Minen geschlossen, was der Gipfel der Dummheit ist. Wir müssen unsere eigenen Seltenerdmetalle haben. Der Kern des Gesetzes ist Folgendes. Man muss da Geld reinstecken, um unser eigenes Produkt zu subventionieren und einen Markt dafür zu schaffen, denn aktuell gibt es keinen Markt. Wir müssen die amerikanische Produktion wieder wettbewerbsfähig machen.“
Doch Moody klärt auf:
“Das Problem ist, dass es erlaubt wurde, US-Produktionskapazitäten nahezu vollständig zu verkrüppeln; aufgrund massenhaftem Angebot aus China, das zu geringeren Preisen produziert werden kann als Seltenerdmetalle aus den USA.“
Commerce Resources Corp.’s Ashram REE-Projekt in Québec kommt genau wie der Grossteil aller REE produzierenden Minen weltweit in sog. Carbonatit-Gestein vor, wo Monazit und Bastnäsit die dominierenden REE-Erzminerale sind. Die Wichtigkeit dieser Tatsache kann nicht genug betont werden, denn Commerce sucht nicht bzw. muss keine neuartige Verarbeitungsmethode finden, um die REEs in ihrer Ashram Lagerstätte zu konzentrieren.
Ich denke, die Unternehmensgeschichte überzeugt, wie ich in einem jüngsten Interview mit Präsident Chris Grove bestätigt bekommen habe, als er offenlegte, wie er und der ehemalige Präsident Dave Hodge einst über REEs aufgeklärt wurden:
“Commerce Resources wurde wegen ein paar Grundstücksclaims gegründet, die Daves Sohn, mein Neffe Mike Hodge, zusammen mit Ruben Verzosa vor Ort per Hand “gestaked“ haben. Wir suchten, und fanden, mehrere Lagerstätten mit guten Tantal- und Niobgehalten. Wir besitzen diese Grundstücke noch immer und wir suchen einen Joint Venture Partner für das Upper Fir Projekt, das aktuell grösste Produktionsszenario für Tantal.
Geologisch gesehen sind diese Grundstücke bemerkenswert, weil es etwa 30 mineralisierte Carbonatite gibt, die wir gefunden und bearbeitet haben. Im Sommer 2005 erhielt ich einen Anruf von einem Magnethersteller aus Texas, der sagte: „Ihr Jungs müsst rausgehen und alle eure Bohrkerne nach REEs neu analysieren lassen.“ Ich fragte ihn: „Warum würden wir das machen wollen?“ Und er antwortete: „Weil du wissen musst, dass a) China Exportzölle auf REEs erhebt und b) dass alle der weltweitren REEs aus Carbonatit-Lagerstätten stammen, und c) dass deine Blue River Grundstücke hauptsächlich Carbonatite sind.“
Ich sagte, dass ich wusste, dass wir es bei Blue River mit Carbonatiten zu tun haben, doch der Rest, den er aufzählte, war eine schnelles und informatives Lehrstück darüber, was die Norm fast aller REE-Minen weltweit ist.
Seitdem untersuchten wir, nahmen Gesteinsproben und bohrten viele Lagerstättenanzeichen auf unserem Grundstück, obwohl wir unserer Meinung nicht wirklich etwas mit Weltklasseformat gefunden haben. Doch Ende 2006 vervierfachte sich der Niobpreis und so suchten wir eine primäre Nioblagerstätte. Und so akquirierten wir Anfang 2007 den Eldor Carbonatit in Québec.
Es sollte bemerkt werden, dass das gesamte weltweite Niobangebot aus Carbonatit-Lagerstätten kommt. Und sobald wir unser erstes Programm auf Eldor im Sommer 2007 starteten, nachdem wir $32,7 Mio. CAD beschafft haben, suchten wir nach einer Weltklasse-Nioblagerstätte und gleichzeitig auch nach einem Weltklasse-REE-Projekt. Im Folgejahr veröffentlichten wir eine einige spektakuläre Niob-, Tantal-, Phosphat- und Fluorspargehalte, doch am letzten Tag vom 2009-Sommerprogramm ordnete Darren Smith an, dass Ashley und Ramses Gesteinsproben von einer Stelle nehmen sollte, die zum Ashram REE-Projekt wurde. Der Rest ist Geschichte.
Wir wussten, wonach wir suchten, und wir fanden, wonach wir suchten. Und die Tatsache, dass Ashram mit denjenigen Standardtechniken verarbeitet werden kann, die auch der Grossteil der weltweiten Produzenten anwenden, ist schlussendlich die logischste Sache.“
Das Ashram Projekt verfügt über eine einzigartige und ausgewogene REE-Verteilung, die eine grössere Marktflexibilität ermöglicht, wobei die Lagerstätte mit denjenigen REEs verankert ist, welche die stärksten Marktfundamentaldaten sowohl kurz-, mittel- und langfristig besitzen. Das Projekt befindet sich darüberhinaus in einer grossartigen Minenrechtssprechung, es ist gross, hat gute Gehalte und beheimatet eine einfache bzw. unkomplizierte Mineralogie, mit der bewiesen werden konnte, dass ein hochgradiges Mineralkonzentrat (>45% REO) mit hohen Gewinnungsraten (>75%) produzierbar ist; was bedeutet, dass es mit den weltweiten REE-Produzenten vergleichbar ist.
Kein anderes REE-Entwicklungsprojekt kann ihr Material so effektiv verarbeiten wie es mit Ashram der Fall ist, was dazu führt, dass Ashram basierend auf ihrer PEA die niedrigsten projizierten Produktionskosten (OPEX) im gesamten Markt hat. Mit anderen Worten: Ashram hat die Zutaten, um mit chinesischem Angebot zu konkurrieren. Welch anderes REE-Projekt in Nord-Amerika kann dies von sich behaupten? (Ganz zu schweigen von einer Minenlebenszeit von mehr als 100 Jahren.)
Als Commerce Resources Mitte 2016 einen $300.000 Zuschuss von der Québec Regierung bekommen hat, zitierte Rockstone Vincent van Goghs “Das Große kommt nicht allein durch Impuls zustande, sondern ist eine Aneinanderkettung kleiner Dinge, die zu einem Ganzen vereint worden sind“. Letzten Freitag schloss Commerce Resources eine $1,7 Mio. CAD Finanzierung ab, die aufgrund der ersten $1 Mio. CAD Investition seitens Ressources Québec initiiert wurde, wobei auch allen anderen ermöglicht wurde, zu gleichen Konditionen einzusteigen. Ressources Québec ist eine Tochtergesellschaft des provinziellen Regierungsunternehmens Investissement Québec mit Fokus auf „Projekte, die gute Renditeaussichten haben und die Wirtschaftsentwicklung Québecs unterstützen.“ Chris Grove kommentierte:
”Wir freuen uns ungemein über die Unterstützung der Regierung von Quebec in Form dieser Investition von Ressources Québec. Die Provinz Quebec bewährt sich weiter als eines der attraktivsten Rechtssysteme für die Erschließung eines Rohstoffprojekts. Mit Begeisterung sehen wir der Weiterentwicklung unseres Projekts Ashram mit den eingenommenen Mitteln entgegen.“
Ressources Québec ist mit mehr als $500 Mio. Kapital für Investitionen in diese Industrien ausgestattet und verwaltet auch den Capital Mines Hydrocarbures Fund, der über $1 Mrd. verfügt ($500 Mio. für Projekte, die im Territorium vom sog. Plan Nord vorkommen, und $500 Mio. für Québec als Ganzes). Dieser Fonds ermöglicht es der Québec-Regierung, sich an Minen- und Öl- und Gasunternehmen über Aktien zu beteiligen, die Aussicht auf Erfolg haben, in Québec Minerale abzubauen und zu verarbeiten.
Internationale Minenunternehmen mit Investitionen in Québec:
• Etwa 23 aktive Minen befinden sich in der kanadischen Provinz Québec.
• Glencore betreibt mittlerweile 4 Untergrundminen in Québec und eine 5. Mine ist im Bau.
• Bis 2014 baute Goldcorp eine der grössten Goldminen in Kanada, die $1,8 Mio. Eleonore Mine in der James Bay Region im Norden von Québec, von der erwartet wird, Kanadas grösste Goldmine zu werden (Output: >300.000 Unzen Gold pro Jahr).
• Osisko Gold Royalties erhielt 2016 von Ressources Québec eine Wandelschuldverschreibung i.H.v. $50 Mio.
• Im März 2016 erhielt Nemaska Lithium eine $13 Mio. Investition von Ressources Québec. Im Juli schloss Nemaska eine $69 Mio. Finanzierung ab und stieg zur TSX-Börse auf.
• Tata Steel Minerals Canada, ein Joint Venture zwischen Tata Steel aus Indien (94%) und New Millennium Iron Corp. aus Calgary (6%), entwickeln ein $1,5 Mrd. DSO- (“Direct Shipping Ore“) Minenprojekt nahe Schefferville im Norden von Québec. Im November 2016 gewährte Ressources Québec ein $50 Mio. Darlehen und investierte weitere $125 Mio. in eine Aktienprivatplatzierung, um das Projekt zu unterstützen. Ministerin Lise Thériault erklärte: “Die Unterstützung für dieses grosse Projekt bestätigt unser Bekenntnis, das Wachstum von Québecs Minenindustrie zu stimulieren, insbesondere in Nord-Québec, und die verantwortungsvolle Entwicklung unserer Ressourcen zu ermutigen.“ Das DSO-Projekt soll 6 Mio. Tonnen Eisenerz pro Jahr produzieren. Das Erz soll per Eisenbahn zum Hafen Sept-Iles transportiert werden.
• Stornoway Diamonds baute im Zentrum von Québec eine Mine, die 2 Monate früher als geplant in Betrieb ging und unter Budget lag und nur $775 Mio. kostete. 2014 schloss Stornoway Finanztranskationen i.H.v. $944 Mio. ab: $220 Mio. kamen von Investissement Québec, $105 Mio. von Caisse de Dépôt et Placement du Québec Pension Managers und $360 Mio. von dem privat geführten Unternehmen Orion Mine Finance. Obwohl Stornoway sagt, dass finanzielle Unterstützung entscheidend war, um die Renard Mine in die Produktion zu bringen, so war es effektiv die 240 km lange Verlängerung der Route 167, die mit Hilfe eines $77 Mio. Darlehens seitens der Provinz-Regierung gebaut wurde und der nuützlichste Beitrag vom Plan Nord war. Diese Strasse wird Zugang zu anderen Minenprojekten in der Gegend ermöglichen. Für die Regierung Québecs ist die Symbolik von Stornoways Betriebsstart viel mehr als nur die Eröffnung einer neuen Mine mit einer neuen Ressource. Es repräsentiert das erste Projekt, das unter der Schirmherrschaft vom Plan Nord abgeschlossen wurde. “Stornoway ist ein aussergewöhnliches Beispiel unserer Vision, die wir als Regierung haben“, sagte Québecs Energie- und Ressourcenminister Pierre Arcand, der auch für Plan Nord verantwortlich ist.
Laut “Choosing Québec‘s mining sector“ (von Gouvernement du Québec, 2016):
“REEs sind global gesehen eine strategische Ressource. Prognose sagen eine steigende Nachfrage voraus, aufgrund ihrer Anwendung in den Hightech- und saubere Technologie-Branchen, insbesondere in der Hybrid- und Elektrofahrzeugindustrie.
Québec war noch nie ein REE-Produzent, wobei sie es in der nahen Zukunft werden könnte; dank des aussichtsreichen Potentials, vor allem für HREEs. Drei Projekte haben die Lagerstätten-Bewertungsphase erreicht und könnten eines Tages REO-Konzentrate liefern.
In Nunavik, 130 km südlich von Kuujjuaq, ist das Ziel vom Ashram (Eldor) Projekt von Commerce Resources Corp., REEs aus einem Carbonatit zu extrahieren. Das Projekt beinhaltet den Minenabbau und vor Ort Konzentration von REE-Erz, gefolgt von einer Weiterverarbeitung in einer Hydrometallurgischen Anlage in Süd-Québec, wo gemischte Seltenerd-Carbonatkonzentrate hergestellt werden. Arbeiten für eine Vormachbarkeitsstudie sind bereits im Gange...“
Technische Betrachtung
Seltene Erden: Die dunkle Seite der Hightech-Metalle
arte Doku 2017 (51 min.)
Angebotssicherheit für REEs und der unaufhaltbare Paradigmenwechsel in der westlichen Welt
Die im Streit stehenden Claims in den süd- und ostchinesischen Meeren (Quelle: NPR.org, Katie Park / NPR)
Eine Unternehmenspräsentation von Commerce Resources Corp. wurde speziell für die auf Trump fokussierte Konferenz “Investing in Mining & Metals: A Paradigm Shift in the Trump Era“ (19. Januar 2017 im Union League Club in New York von Gastgeber Murdock Capital Partners).
Siehe vor allem die Seiten 23-29, die für diese NY-Konferenz vorbereitet wurden und im aktuellen geopolitischen Umfeld sehr relevant sind.
Das Potential für irgendeine Reaktion von China könnte eine Reihe von Rohstoffen betreffen, allen voran REEs, Cobalt, Eisenerz, etc.
Rex Tillerson, ehemaliger Exxon Mobil CEO, wurde nominiert, das US State Department zu leiten. Er sagte dem Senate Foreign Relations Committee, dass Chinas Handlungen im südchinesischen Meer “extrem beunruhigend“ seien und verglich sie mit Russlands Annexion der Krim. Tillerson sagte, dass die Situation eine potentielle “Bedrohung für die gesamte Weltwirtschaft“ sei.
We have a national security crisis: Let‘s do nothing
By John Moody of FoxNews.com on February 8, 2017
Click on above image (or here) to watch video from FoxNews
Can the United States do anything to reverse a dangerous dependence on crucial mineral supplies that put our future military security in the hands of China? We may be about to find out.
The challenge to our future security was outlined in a grim, largely overlooked report from the U.S. Geological Survey. In stark terms, it demonstrated that the U.S. is 100 percent reliant on foreign producers for at least 20 elements and minerals, some of them of strategic importance to our military. The most common source: China.
As Bellwether noted last week, a group of 17 materials, known collectively as rare earths, are produced almost exclusively by China. That’s the country President Trump has labelled a currency manipulator and trade cheat and which he has vowed to bring to heel in future bilateral negotiations.
The USGS report, points out other metal deficiencies, and raises serious questions about how much leverage the U.S. will have over China. Almost all the minerals in question are essential components needed for advanced fighter bombers, satellite guided missiles and catapults that launch planes from the decks of aircraft carriers.
“That 2017 USGS report is not fake news,” says George Byers, a 40-year mining industry veteran and rare earth expert. “You have 29 or 30 studies on critical materials, including rare earths that go back to the early ‘90s. The outcome of each study is to declare ‘we have a crisis, let’s do something about it.’ But all they do about it, is to ask for another study.”
Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.), plans to introduce legislation this month to require the U.S. military to obtain rare earths that are produced in America, even if it means subsidizing those industries.
“This is of critical importance to our national security and ability to stay ahead of everyone else,” Hunter told me. “Rare earth metals are crucial. We’ve closed down mines in my own state of California, which is the leading edge of stupid.We need to have our own rare earths. The big sticking part of the bill is this. You have to put money in to subsidize our own product to create a market, because now there’s no market. We’ve got to put American manufacturing back in competition.”
The problem, these analysts note, is that U.S. production capacity in this area has been allowed to wither to almost nothing, due to plentiful supplies from China that can be produced at a lower price than U.S. made rare earths.
Even more perilous, China’s own rapacious demand for rare earths is outstripping its ability to supply domestic consumers as well as the U.S., meaning it may be unable to ship goods to the U.S. even if it wants to.
In addition to rare earths, which are vital components of high-grade permanent magnets used in military aircraft and missile systems, the United States, according to the USGS report, is now 100 percent reliant on foreign countries for supplies of manganese, which is used to make impact resistant steel, among other things. Though readily available in mines in Arizona, Arkansas and Minnesota, it can be imported more cheaply. The USGS study lists American production of manganese last year as: zero.
Hunter’s legislation aims to put an end to that. The bill would divert funds from military aircraft and missile weapons systems to support domestic production rare earths and other vital materials. It would also provide five-year interest free loans to U.S. producers, giving them time to ramp up abandoned and neglected facilities.
That may be just in time to prevent further foreign encroachment on our manufacturing base. Peg Brickley of The Wall Street Journal reported this week that Vladimir Iorich, a Russian-born billionaire with German nationality, is trying to take control of Mountain Pass mine in California, once the largest domestic source of rare earths.
That mine was once the production facility for Molycorp, the only significant American producer of rare earth metals. Molycorp went bankrupt in 2015, partly due to the Obama administration’s refusal to help bail it out of its $1.4 billion debt.
Instead, the previous administration sank hundreds of millions of dollars in Solyndra, a solar power company that comported with the former president’s advocacy for renewable energy. The problem was, solar energy panels also use rare earth metals. Solyndra, which also went belly-up, ended up importing the solar cells it needed – from China.
China‘s secret Trump card: Could Beijing deprive our military of critical defense components?
By John Moody of FoxNews.com on February 3, 2017
Jan. 17, 2017: China’s President Xi Jinping speaks at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)
Candidate Donald Trump promised to bring jobs back to America, rebuild our military, and on trade get tough with China, which he said was “raping” our economy. President Trump may find his administration the victim of exactly the job-exporting policies he railed against and face the very real possibility that China could cut off U.S. access to 17 rare materials vital to our advanced aircraft and guided missile systems.
Among major U.S. military projects imperiled by a potential China squeeze play is a $340 billion Navy program to create new, Columbia-class nuclear submarines, and a new electro-magnetic aircraft launch (EMAL) system, which the Navy hopes to use for catapults that launch planes from aircraft carriers.
The 17 materials, known as rare earth elements (REE), are essential to the production of the high-performance permanent magnets used in both those systems, as well as in motors and missiles, GPS systems, satellite imaging, night vision goggles, and consumer products like smartphones and flat television screens. And for precisely the reasons Candidate Trump cited for the decline of American manufacturing and the loss of U.S. jobs, China is now in a position to cut off our supply of processed rare earth elements if it feels Trump is pushing too hard on trade and economic issues—or anything else.
“Absolutely, China could cut off the supply,” said Jeff Green, a defense industry analyst in Washington, D.C. “Processing rare earths is the end of the hose. China controls the spigot the hose is attached to.”
This dire situation came about largely as a result of a U.S. decision to rely on China, which is estimated to produce 90 percent of all processed rare earth elements sold to U.S. consumers, including the Pentagon. In 1995, the Clinton administration allowed two U.S. rare earth producers, in North Carolina and Indiana (the home state of Vice President Mike Pence) to go out of business. They transferred their production capacity to China, leaving it as the world’s only large-scale REE supplier.
The supply chain worked smoothly until 2010, when the Japanese navy detained a Chinese fishing boat as part of a territorial dispute. China promptly choked off REE sales to Japan, and imposed worldwide supply quotas. Almost overnight, the price of REEs soared 4,000 per cent worldwide, demonstrating China’s ability to control the market at will.
Sensing an opportunity, a Colorado-based company called Molycorp tried to ramp up American REE production, using a mine and plant in southeastern California known as Mountain Pass. When China lost a World Trade Organization challenge and revoked its production quotas, the price of REEs tumbled and Molycorp found itself refining a product that could be made much more cheaply, and of higher quality, in China.
The Obama administration, determined to support renewable sources of energy, declined to bail out Molycorp, even while pumping hundreds of millions of dollars into a solar panel company known as Solyndra. Solar cells also use REEs. Solyndra ended up importing solar cells from China. The company went bankrupt, as did Molycorp in 2015.
It is unclear what the Trump administration can do to eliminate U.S. reliance on China for REEs, at least in the short term. Later this month, a court in Delaware is expected to authorize an auction to bring Molycorp out of bankruptcy, and, potentially revive REE processing in California.
The problem is that REE production technology was transferred to China during the Clinton administration, and the Chinese are now thought to have an insurmountable advantage.
In 1992, Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping, said, “The Middle East has oil. China has rare earth.”
The implications of that remark are now being felt. They may include profoundly challenging a U.S. president who came to power promising to bring China to heel.
John Moody is Executive Vice President, Executive Editor for Fox News. A former Vatican correspondent and Rome bureau chief for Time magazine, he is the author of four books, including “Pope John Paul II : Biography.“
The Ashram advantage: Commerce Resources prepares for a rare earths paradigm shift
By Greg Klein of ResourceClips on January 30, 2017
The appeal to Western markets is obvious—an advanced, low-cost rare earths project in a friendly jurisdiction. So even before the recent military build-up in the South China Sea, Commerce Resources TSXV:CCE experienced an increase in American requests for concentrate samples from its northern Quebec Ashram deposit. With the U.S. Navy now challenging Chinese territorial aggression, the confrontation seems to pit two superpowers against each other. But what does that really indicate?
It’s actually “one lonely small old Russian-built carrier against three U.S. Nimitz-class supercarriers,” Commerce president Chris Grove points out. “So when Beijing says it’s going to take off the gloves, I think they’re referring to trade.”
Commerce Resources prepares for a rare earths paradigm shift
That brings to mind the Senkaku incident, a much smaller 2010 confrontation in the same region that prompted China to cut off rare earths exports to Japan, sending global supply chains into turmoil and prices soaring. A possible Senkaku redux is one of a number of aspects to a global paradigm shift that Grove sees coming, to the benefit of Western industry in general and Ashram in particular.
The U.S. might easily outgun China, but China produces about 90% of the world’s rare earths. They’re essential to several defence needs, “a fact that really drives certain people in the U.S. absolutely apoplectic,” says Grove.
While Westerners have struggled to compete with China on costs, prices mean little to the U.S. Department of Defense, which last year began putting money behind potential domestic processors, Grove says. That support complements a multi-faceted advantage that the West is gaining over China, he explains. The latter country struggles with rising labour costs and the need to finally address its environmental woes. Meanwhile Western countries offset their labour costs with technological innovation and maintain the world’s highest environmental standards.
Even putting aside defence, demand for rare earths continues to grow with another global development. The international commitment to address climate change through clean energy, exemplified by the Paris Agreement, increases rare earths demand for numerous applications ranging from EVs to wind turbines.
In a research report last year, Chris Berry noted that “REE usage continues to grow at a pace well above global GDP growth with demand CAGRs growing anywhere from 4% to 8%, with permanent magnet demand forecast to lead this charge to 2020.”
Clearly there’s a market for non-Chinese sources. And Grove sees Ashram uniquely positioned to help serve that market. Certainly others have failed but, he emphasizes, they lacked Ashram’s benefits of mineralogy, metallurgy, grade and jurisdiction—all of which add up to lower costs.
The project reached PEA in 2012, with an amended PEA in 2015. Since then the company’s been busy on multiple fronts as it advances towards pre-feasibility.
Ashram’s advantage begins with its relatively simple mineralogy, with carbonatite host rock and rare earths within the minerals monazite, bastnasite and xenotime, which dominate commercial REE processing.
Pilot plant metallurgical tests have quadrupled the PEA’s concentrate grade, producing 41% total rare earth oxides and 43% TREO, both at 71% recovery. That puts the grade well within the range of commercial producers and does so through a single-leach process that simplifies the flowsheet.
Requests for concentrate samples have come from Solvay, Mitsubishi, Treibacher, BASF, DKK, Albemarle and Blue Line, among others covered by non-disclosure agreements.Metallurgy has also found a potential fluorspar byproduct, offering an advantage to both revenue and opex. Grove credits Glencore Canada’s interest in fluorspar with the willingness of its NorFalco Sales division to supply Commerce with sulphuric acid on highly favourable terms.
Proud as he is of Ashram’s high-grade, near-surface resource, Grove anticipates an even more impressive upgrade. The current estimate uses a 1.25% cutoff to show:
• measured: 1.59 million tonnes averaging 1.77% total rare earth oxides
• indicated: 27.67 million tonnes averaging 1.9% TREO
• inferred: 219.8 million tonnes averaging 1.88% TREO
Ashram has undergone another 9,200 metres since its resource estimate, often hitting even higher grades.
Commerce has since drilled another 9,200 metres, mostly infill but always with some stepout holes as well. “In all those drill programs, we always hit mineralized material in the stepouts, we always encountered less waste rock at surface than was modelled in the resource and we always hit zones that were higher than the average grade,” he says.
Ashram’s magnet feed distribution also has Grove enthused. Overall, the deposit ranks with the largest producers for praseodymium, neodymium, terbium and dysprosium. Ashram’s medium-to-heavy REO resource, moreover, surpasses the producers for those elements. And, as Grove points out, those are critical elements. Efforts to find substitutes for magnet REEs have failed.
Benefiting both Ashram’s opex and the environment would be wind energy, currently being studied for the project.
Commerce’s environmental commitment as well as its community outreach have been recognized by the e3 Plus Award for social responsibility from l’Association de l’exploration minière du Québec.
The company has also received a $300,000 provincial grant to optimize tailings management, funding that shows Quebec’s commitment to mining as well as the environment. Grove calls the province “a fantastic jurisdiction,” one that invests directly in companies through Ressources Québec and makes tangible progress on the visionary Plan Nord infrastructure program.
Following a private placement of up to $2.5 million offered last month, Grove looks forward to a number of near-term milestones. Still to come are final assays from last year’s drilling. The agenda also calls for completing the pilot plant and filling requests for REE and fluorspar concentrate samples. The samples, Grove suggests, could spur interest in a JV or offtake agreement.
The Commerce quest for rare metals hasn’t been confined to rare earths. Last September sampling on the company’s property about a kilometre from Ashram found “spectacular” results up to 5.9% niobium pentoxide, described by Grove as “approximately double the grade of the largest and longest-running niobium producer’s head grade, CBMM’s Araxa deposit in Brazil.”
Commerce also holds the Blue River project in southeastern British Columbia. The property’s Upper Fir tantalum-niobium deposit reached PEA in 2011 and a resource update in 2013.
But Commerce remains very much focused on Ashram. Whether events in the South China Sea send RE prices soaring, Grove sees possible increases coming from producers boosting revenues. But, he emphasizes, Ashram doesn’t need higher prices. “Companies with higher operating costs are probably praying for higher prices,” he says. “Commerce Resources doesn’t need them. We still have a margin at today’s prices.”
The NASA model: How the U.S. government might help build a rare earths supply chain
By Greg Klein of ResourceClips on February 14, 2017
The U.S. government shows increasing concern about relying on China for defence needs. (F/A-18 Super Hornet jet fighter photo: Boeing)
The timing seems ominous. As rival American and Chinese warships assert themselves in the disputed South China Sea, the United States Geological Survey reported 20 minerals on which the U.S. imports all of its supply. Included are rare earths—coming almost entirely from China, of course. It was a 2010 conflict in the same troubled waters between Japan and China that caused the latter country to cut off rare earths exports to its adversary. As other supply chains broke apart, REE prices went on an exponential tear. Might China do that again and, this time, are American decision-makers sufficiently concerned?
They should be, say some observers. Additionally, there also looms the possibility of a trade war sparked by U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods. Yet some REEs are necessary not only for consumer electronics and clean energy, but also for military defence.
The 20 entirely foreign-dependent minerals reported by the USGS represent an increase from 19 the previous year and 11 in 1984. The list includes rare earths, scandium and yttrium as three separate categories. In February 2016 Industrial Minerals reported that the U.S. Department of Defense “identified 15 of the 17 rare earths as critical over the last five years.”
Having foreseen as far back as 2009 the possibility of China using REEs as a geopolitical strategy, Jeff Green watches the topic from a defence perspective. “I think about the tools China has to retaliate and rare earths come right to the top of the list,” he says.
Green has recently served on the U.S. House Armed Services Subcommittee on Readiness. He’s a lawyer, a member of the U.S. Magnetic Materials Association and the REE World Advisory Board, a U.S. Air Force Reserve colonel and a former USAF missile combat crew commander. He describes his Washington firm J.A. Green & Company as “primarily a defence lobbying company that’s really interested in the nexus between national resource security and national security.”
He finds the U.S. government’s concern stronger and better informed than previously. That contrasts with events leading to what he calls the “Molycorp fiasco,” a supposed market solution to the 2010 shock and a strategy that he warned against. It went on to “burn the market to the tune of one and a half billion dollars.”
The result? “Today we’re probably in a more dire China-dependent situation than ever before.”
But Green sees hope in a Congressional bill that he anticipates being introduced within a week or so. Rep. Duncan Hunter’s proposal would help American companies develop domestic supplies of REEs and other minerals critical to defence. Assistance could come in the form of no-interest loans, Green says. Additionally the Department of Defense might pay more for American products made from American commodities, with the government reimbursing the difference between domestic and Chinese costs until American companies can compete.
As for the bill’s chances of success, Green’s optimistic. “You’ve got an administration that is very pro Buy American, Hire American. You’ve got a Congress that very much supports manufacturing. It will be much more pro-mining, pro-industry than we’ve seen. It’s not a pure free market economic philosophy but one that will say: ‘If we’ve got a critical supply risk and we’ve got domestic companies that can fill that gap, then let’s invest in America to protect our national security and grow our manufacturing base.’
“It’s a totally different dynamic than Washington’s seen in 40 years.”
Chris Berry agrees about the need for subsidies, among other assistance. In a research report last year the president of House Mountain Partners and editor of the Disruptive Discoveries Journal warned of the cost of not creating a supply chain outside China. In an e-mail to ResourceClips.com he notes that the “mine permitting, exploration and building process would all need to be expedited through legislation and through subsidies. This is the only way I see non-Chinese deposits being able to compete with China’s RE production costs. The good news is that as various technologies grow in importance (such as EVs) and existing processes grow as well (fluid cracking catalysts), this implies steady demand for REEs.”
While Berry considers the establishment of new supply chains “a multi-year endeavour,” he adds, “a focus on recycling or funding of materials science to minimize foreign dependence of these materials is a reasonable near-term solution to encourage supply chain development.”
As for the raw materials, Green maintains the U.S. has REE resources sufficient for defence needs, which he says are relatively small. “We’re not trying to compete globally in the automotive, magnet or catalyst markets,” he emphasizes. “We’re trying to protect our national security needs.”
Yet the Congressional bill calls for assistance to all aspects of the supply chain, he says, “whether that’s processing, refinement, separation, beneficiation, metal production, alloy production, magnet production.”
Support for supply chains would benefit other sectors, he points out. “This is the old NASA model. The government for years invested in new technologies and we’ve reaped the benefits in consumer advancements. Just look at the refining industry for petroleum products, at catalysts, phosphors in electronics, magnets for vehicles, battery materials. I think the commercial applications are terrific.
“I believe the president will kind of cheerlead this effort along,” he adds. “That’s really a game-changer. He’s going to take the traditional free trade model and turn it on its head. He’ll say the rest of the world doesn’t play by these rules so we’re going to play smarter—we’re going to treat our industries like the rest of the world treats theirs.”
Unternehmensdetails
Commerce Resources Corp.
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Email: cgrove@commerceresources.com
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Marktkapitalisierung: €17 Mio. EUR
Report-Übersicht
Report #22 “Angebotssicherheit für Seltenerdmetalle und der unaufhaltbare Paradigmenwechsel in der westlichen Welt“
Report #21 “Commerce Resources bestens positioniert für robustes REE-Nachfragewachstum“
Report #20 “Commerce registriert bis dato höchste mit Niobium mineralisierte Gesteinsproben bei Miranna“
Report #19 “Karbonatit: Der Grundstein vom Seltenerden-Markt“
Report #18 “REE-Boom 2.0 in Vorbereitung?“
Report #17 “Die Regierung Quebec startet Arbeiten mit Commerce Resources“
Report #16 “Glencore-Handel mit Commerce Resources“
Report #15 “Der Erste wird zuerst bedient“
Report #14 “Fragen & Antworten zu meinem Artikel Beleuchtung des Spielfelds der Seltenen Erden“
Report #13 “Beleuchtung des Spielfelds der Seltenen Erden“
Report #12 “Ashrams Pilotanlage erreicht Meilenstein“
Report #11 “Rumble in the REE Jungle: Molycorp vs. Commerce – Die Mountain Pass Blase und der Ashram Vorteil“
Report #10 “Interview mit Darren L. Smith und Chris Grove während sich der Friedhof der REE-Projekte zunehmend füllt“
Report #9 “Lug und Trug mit dem REE-Preiskorb und die Klarheit von OPEX“
Report #8 “Ein fundamentaler Wirtschaftlichkeitsfaktor im REE-Markt: SÄURE“
Report #7 “Die Mine-zum-Markt-Strategie und ihre Motive im REE-Markt“
Report #6 “Was braucht der REE-Markt dringend? (Ausser Verstand)“
Report #5 “Aufstieg zum Brancheprimus kurz vor Vollendung“
Report #4 “Ashram – Die nächste Schlacht um REEs zwischen China und dem Rest der Welt?“
Report #3 “REE-Lagerstätten: Ein einfaches Mittel zur vergleichenden Bewertung“
Report #2 “K.O.-Schlag gegen irre-führende Aussagen in der REE-Branche“
Report #1 “Das K.O.-Kriterium für REE-Aktien: Wie man die Spreu vom Weizen trennt“
Disclaimer: Bitte lesen Sie den vollständigen Disclaimer im vollständigen Research Report als PDF (hier), da fundamentale Risiken und Interessenkonflikte vorherrschen.
