[muawiyah]

Unless you’ve got news to the contrary, we have finished refurbishing our biggest rare earth mine and it’s opening up this Summer (See: Mountain Pass mine). http://www.bit-tech.net/news/hardware/2011/07/04/japan-finds-rare-earth-mineral-deposits/1 also reveals a new rare earth find in Japan that increases world supply 1000 times.

[Sonny M]

News to the contrary, the Chinese have a 97% market share, and while I am glad to hear that anything that suggests someone else breaking that up, until I see a crack in that market share, I think I am pretty safe saying that the Chinese own that market, though kudos to anyone and everyone that does successfully open a mine.

Note: I was referring to the US in that we do have a de facto ban via regulations.

[CollegeRepublican]

The problem with Mountain Pass and Molycorp is that the rare earth minerals at their mine are the lighter rare earths. The valuable heavy rare earths are much rarer if you will. Dysprosium and neodymium are extremely valuable in making all sizes of permanent magnets, especially for electric motors. They are heavy rare earths and do not occur at a high rate at Mountain Pass. Plus Mountain Pass will not cover all of our needs if the China market is completely closed to us.