I spoke earlier today with John Ebert of Yunsheng USA, the US arm of a fully integrated Chinese “mine-to-market” magnetic materials company. He had recently spoken with colleagues in China who had access to the report in question, and was able to get a different perspective on it.

I wrote up my discussion with John in an article at RareMetalBlog.com titled “The Sky Is Not Falling – A Different Perspective On The Chinese MIIT Report On Rare Earths” – feel free to check it out.

The almost complete monopoly that Chinese suppliers have on rare earth production, globally, has been a source of concern for the permanent magnets industry outside of China, for quite some time. The strategic importance of companies like Avalon,  Great Western Minerals Group, who also has significant rare earth reserves in Canada and Molycorp Minerals, LLC, with rare earth resources at the famous Mountain Pass facility in California, is self-evident, particularly for the permanent magnets industry in particular.  Information sources like the RMB are therefore particularly welcome, I think, to those of us trying to make sense of what can be a rapidly changing landscape.

Earlier this year I was invited to contribute to the RMB and I am pleased to say that earlier this month I finally made my first post over there, on the dysprosium problem.  I’ll be sure to highlight RMB posts, here at Terra Magnetica, that might be of particular interest to the permanent magnets industry.

– Gareth