Molycorp, Daido, Mitsubishi form next generation rare earth magnets JV
Molycorp has formed a joint venture with Daido Steel and Mitsubishi to manufacture next generation NdFeB permanent rare earth magnets.
RENO, NV -
Molycorp, Daido Steel, and Mitsubishi have formed a joint venture to manufacture and sell next-generation neodymium-iron-boron (NdFeB) permanent rare earth magnets, producing greater performance with less reliance on dysprosium.
The joint venture will be financed by the three companies and by a government subsidy sponsored by Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry.
The effort will utilize Daido’s commercial-scale magnet manufacturing technologies, Mitsubishi’s domestic and international marketing and sales network, and Molycorp’s rare earth oxide, metal and alloy manufacturing capabilities, according to Molycorp.
Target markets for the joint venture are the automotive and home appliance markets. “The joint venture has been provisionally awarded a supply agreement for a next-generation electric vehicle with a major automotive manufacturer,” Molycorp advised.
Rare earth magnets currently fall into two basic types: samarium cobalt and neodymium-iron-boron, both of which can be bonded or sintered. Currently, between 45,000 and 50,000 tons of sintered neodymium magnets are produced each year, mainly in China and Japan.
“The technology for use by the joint venture is a new and novel approach that does not depend on the use of patents held by other magnet companies,” said Molycorp. Instead, it “allows for the manufacture of permanent rare earth magnets that deliver greater performance with less reliance on dysprosium, a relatively scare rare earth.”
“The process also results in higher production yields,” the company added.
The technology is licensed from Intermetallics, a partnership between Mitsubishi, Daido and Masato Sagawa, co-inventor of the NdFeB magnet. Made with neodymium, praseodymium and dysprosium (or terbium), NdFeB magnets are considered the world’s most powerful permanent magnet. They are a component of high-performance motors used in the power trains of electric vehicles, hybrid vehicles and wind power generators, as well as in motors in home appliance and industrial applications.
The International Energy Agency estimates electric motors are used in 45% of global power consumption. The NdFeB magnets in motors could help reduce that power consumption by 20% and potentially reduce global CO2 emissions by 1.2 billion tons.
“I am happy and very honored that Molycorp is able to partner with these extraordinary companies, who are global leaders and innovators in so many areas,” said Mark Smith, Molycorp CEO. “Molycorp is also pleased that the joint venture can break ground almost immediately and will be able to produce some of the world’s most powerful rare earth magnets in as little as 14 months.”
The JV plans to build an initial 500 metric-ton-per year magnet manufacturing facility in Nakatsugawa, Japan (Gifu Prefecture) with start-up expected by January 2013. The companies expect to commence work on the new facility next month and eventually expand operations in the U.S. and elsewhere.
“The next generation magnet manufacturing technologies being utilized by the joint venture are a perfect complement to the advanced technologies Molycorp is deploying across our own rare earth manufacturing supply chain,” Smith said, adding the initiative is a major milestone in Molycorp’s mine-to-magnets technology.
The capital contribution ratio of the joint venture will be 30% by Molycorp, 35.5% by Daido, and 34.5% by Mitsubishi.
By: Dorothy Kosich
Source: http://www.mineweb.com/mineweb/view/mineweb/en/page72102?oid=140588&sn=Detail&pid=72102
Rare Earth Q4 Outlook
It’s a familiar story for rare earth market watchers, sky-high prices and tight supply outside of China.
But until significant production outside of China is established, analysts foresee few changes to this trend, barring end users shutting up shop to cut demand.
2011 has thus far seen prices for most rare earth elements take off in the wake of tight control from over production and export quotas. Total production in China for 2011 has been capped at 93,800 tonnes , an increase of 5 percent from 2010, while exports have been restricted to 30,184 tonnes,slightly less than the 30,258 tonnes permitted last year.
Although Lynas Corporation Ltd . (ASX:LYC ) officially opened their Mount Weld mine in Western Australia on August 4th , production from this facility, which will initially be 11,000 tonnes per year, is not likely to make an impact on the REE market until 2012, as the first feed of rare earths concentrate into the yet-to-be-fully-licensed Lynas Advanced Materials Plant (LAMP) in Malaysia is scheduled for Q4 .
In the meantime, Molycorp Inc . (NYSE:MCP) remain the only major producer filling the gap outside of China, and the Colorado-based company has profited nicely from the comparatively modest amount of supply it has been able to pump into REE markets so far this year.
Last month Molycorp’s reported production results of 815 metric tonnes of rare earth oxides for Q2, and also announced that they expected output of 977-1,321 metric tonnes during Q3, and 1,017-1,377 metric tonnes for Q4.
Coupled with the sky-high prices most REE are currently fetching, the anticipated increase in output from Molycorp has left some analysts quite bullish on the company’s performance outlook for the remainder of the year.
Prices may climb further still as China halts production at 3 mines
One twist that may still play a major role in REE markets before the year is out is the halt in production announced by the Chinese government on Monday .
State media reported that production has been ordered suspended by year’s end at 3 out of 8 mines in Ganzhou, Jiangxi Province. The Ganzhou region produces nearly 40 percent of China’s rare earths.
Li Guoqing , Director of the Ganzhou City Mining Management Bureau, commented on Monday that it was unknown when production at the 3 mines would resume, and that an eventual resumption of operations would be based on directives from the provincial government.
Although the shutdown is mostly a consequence of China hitting its annual production quota too early and the government clamping down on illegal mining and exports, it is unlikely to have an impact on the 15,000 tonnes of rare earths slated to be exported from China over the last half of the year. The prospect of a prolonged shutdown in one of China’s key mining regions may well begin to ripple through REE markets during Q4.
EU reveals it is stockpiling rare earths to reduce dependence on China
Another development that could play out on REE markets over Q4 was the disclosure by the European Union (EU) on Tuesday that they are stockpiling rare earths to reduce their dependence on China.
Speaking to Reuters , Andrea Maresi, press officer for EU industry minister Antonio Tajani confirmed that they were “working to secure supplies of these minerals from outside of the EU, such as from Latin America, or from Africa or other countries like Russia.”
“We are trying to improve our sourcing and reduce our dependence on China”, he added.
David O’Brock , CEO of Molycorp’s majority owned Molycorp Silmet AS in Estonia, revealed to Reuters in a recent interview that he had been approached by the EU about stockpiling, and had advocated stockpiling at least 3,000 tonnes of rare earth carbonate.
In spite of his conviction that the EU should be stockpiling to offset export restrictions from China, however, O’Brock believes REE prices will level-out in Q4.
“I think that prices have already started to stabilize. And consumers have found their upper boundaries that they can pass on to their customers, unless the Chinese suddenly open the flood gates, I don’t see prices dropping and I don’t see a continued climb in the prices,” he said.
By Robert Sullivan
Rare Earth Investing News
09/07/2011
Rare earth metals and elements may affect future global relations China
Jim Sims, from Molycorp, says China is starting to export fewer rare earth elements than previously
Wars have been fought over oil and water. But are the future global tensions going to be over access to Scandium, Neodymium or Dysprosium?
Or could conflicts be fought over any other of the 17 rare earth elements, which, week by week, are becoming more and more important in developing the latest high-tech products?
Tucked onto the periodic table of the elements, in a little section once ignored by chemistry teachers, rare earths are now everywhere.
They are in your iPod or tablet computer, are vital for the red colour in your TV screen whatever make you have and allow your headphones to be small enough to fit into your ears.
Jim Sims
As China’s exports are being restricted, we are looking at outright shortages of rare earths, probably this year and next.
Jim Sims Molycorp representative
They are in hybrid cars - both in the batteries and the fuel - and in new generation wind turbines, missile defence systems, solar panels and even F-16 fighter jets.
At the moment China provides 97% of the world’s rare earth elements, which is making America nervous from both an economic and a security perspective.
Their price has gone up 1000% in just a year, which is making mining them in the US worthwhile once again.
‘Rare earth shortages’
A deep hole in the ground high up in the Mojave Desert is America’s only rare earths mine, and the race is on to dig out the supply to match the demand as only a few places in the world have enough reserves to make mining them practical.
“The world - America, Britain, everyone - relies on what China exports to meet their needs,” says Jim Sims from Molycorp, the company running California’s Mountain Pass mine.
“As China’s exports are being restricted, we are looking at outright shortages of rare earths, probably this year and next,” he adds.
America’s only rare earths mine is located in the Mojave Desert in the US south-west
So the huge diggers and trucks moving vast volumes of rocks around, the daily explosive charges blasting the mountainside apart, are harvesting one of the world’s biggest deposits.
The mine closed down 10 years ago when a flood of cheap Chinese rare earth elements made profits hard to maintain.
Until just a few weeks ago, Molycorp was asking for the US government’s help to cover costs of digging these elements out, separating them off and moulding them into metal alloys.
But the price has gone up so rapidly, rare earths is suddenly looking like a good business.
Last year China’s exports of rare earth elements to Japan were interrupted during a political row over territorial waters, which sent shudders around the world.
“We should be worried when any country completely dominates any raw material supplies,” says Christine Parthemore, from the Center for New American Security in Washington DC.
“I don’t think China is uniquely at fault in this situation, but they are using the political leverage that’s derived from cornering the market they have as any country would.
“I’m sure America would do the same,” he adds.
Increasing demand
The creation of permanent magnets, a key component in so many green technologies, is one of the key uses of rare earths.
They make the new generation of wind turbines more efficient and reliable. But there are such an increasing variety of uses for these elements, down to glass polishing, that there aren’t enough of the raw materials to go around.
The speed of China’s growth means the country is consuming more of its own rare earths, which has led to a drop in the amount available for export.
“It is a security issue strictly in the sense that these minerals are used in critical military components for their properties, which we don’t currently have substitutes for,” says Christine Parthemore.
“If the prices go way up or there are actual supply shortages, it can drive prices up over the long term on military procurement - or it can mean there are parts that we can’t manufacture here in the United States anymore.”
It increases the need for an industry to extract the ore and process the materials.
“The elements are all mixed together in the ore we mine,” Jim Sims says.
“We turn them into a liquid, and let these elements settle out into oxides which are like powders,” he adds.
Inside a warehouse at the mine are dozens of huge white sacks, each weighing a metric tonne and each worth $200,000 (£125,700).
“Those powders then get turned into metals as magnets or used in their oxide forms for a variety of uses in a variety of different substances,” Mr Sims says.
As new uses are found for materials like rare earth elements, there will be more competition, and access to them may change the shape of global politics.
By Alastair Leithead BBC News, Mojave Desert, US July 12, 2011
Rare earths mining may chip away at China’s hold on high tech gear
ELK CREEK, Neb., Each new 3,000-foot hole bored into the rolling hills of southeastern Nebraska potentially drills away at a troubling Chinese monopoly.
The drills pull up cylinders of rock in search of exotic minerals like neodymium, praseodymium and ytterbium.
Those “rare earths” are critical ingredients of your car’s catalytic converter and your computer’s flat-screen display, of smart phones and smart bombs. They make your Prius purr and your lasers shine.
In 2010, the world mined 133,000 metric tons of rare earths. Of that, all but 3,000 tons came from China. In the United States there is one mine in Mountain Pass, Calif. responsible for the entire country’s output.
”We could go without this [rare earth] stuff”, said Matt Joeckel, a University of Nebraska- Lincoln geologist who also works for the state’s Conservation and Survey Division, âif we cared to go back to maybe a 1940s level of technology.
Global demand for rare earths is projected to climb 8 percent a year, while the Chinese have clamped down the growth of supply at zero.
A U. S. Energy Department report last year warned that supplies are “at risk” of disruption. Limits on Chinese exports could increasingly mean that high-tech equipment made with rare earths will only be made in China.
General Electric led a small parade of American manufacturers testifying to Congress this month urging the country to spur its own production.
At stake isn’t just the ability to make a better cell phone (tiny magnets make for tiny speakers) or a sharper television picture (the phosphor red in screens comes from europium). The elements are critical to oil refineries and cutting-edge medical care. And rare earths play a growing role in making our modern military more modern.
Some in Congress have suggested the country’s national security is threatened if supplies run too short.
Some 50 years ago, state geologists surveying southeast Nebraska found two oddities around Elk Creek. The rocks were more magnetic than most, and were denser.
Those findings drew the attention of mining company Molycorp Minerals. It drilled holes across the landscape and pulled out 90,000 feet of core samples.
Molycorp would ultimately walk away from Nebraska. In short, the price of the stuff then just wasn’t high enough to gamble on a mine.
A few decades later, a high-tech boom vaulted prices for rare earths upward. Canadian company Quantum Rare Earth Developments came looking at the core samples and reams of data left behind by Molycorp. Joeckel, the Nebraska geologist, had stockpiled it all for safekeeping.
Meantime, half a continent away, the same company that passed on Nebraska in the 1980s is cranking up production in California. Molycorp is the only producer of rare earths in the U. S. It stopped mining a few years ago so it could retool its processing plant at Mountain Pass a$530 million overhaul.
The new method is a greener process that uses far fewer chemicals and less water while shaving the cost of extracting the minerals from mined rock. The company expects to crank up operations in 2012 and produce up to 40,000 tons a year.
Yet even that added U. S. capacity is largely spoken for, without accounting for growing demand in the country.
“It’s been a nightmare”, said Donald Geissler, a purchasing manager for small wind turbine maker Bergey Windpower in Norman, Okla. His company needs rare-earth magnets, which have gone up 40 percent in the last year. “We don’t know in the near future if anything’s even going to be available”.
June 27, 2011, 6:22 AM
by Scott Canon
