Investing in Rare Earth Metals
A mere glance at an apple store can reveal that consumer electronics seems unaffected by the global problems. As Friday, during the IFA in Berlin (biggest consumer electronics fair in the World), the tablet war is going to start investors could profit from unconventional ways to tap this interesting market.
Beside the obvious play of buying these successful consumer electronic products it is now possible to invest (directly or through a newly available Rare Earths performance index) in rare earth miners.
Rare Earths are metals like Scandium and Europium that are considered rare with very limited supply dominated by China with 97% of the World production followed by India and Brasil.
The metals of rare earths are viewed as the key commodities in the development process of green technologies. Their functionality allows for energy to be used more efficiently. If usage of rare earths leads to more handy and more powerful as well as more environmentally friendly and more economical products, these elements become ever more important.
Rare Earths metals a are key commodities for several high tech products as mobile phones, MP3 players, LCD displays
Additionally rare earths are also necessary for hybrid cars (e.g. batteries) and wind power plants .
Current demand cannot be easily meet by the limited supply.
This interesting sector can be used to balance other more conservative portions of a portfolio.
Reader Commentary
at 05:32 pm
We have been mandated to identify potential capital partners for an entity to pursue an IPO or develop a corporate structure with an existing company, for large scale development of REE production and commercialisation on concessions with proven resources
The person in charge at EP Capital is Mr Leo Fung, CEO, who will be very happy to discuss this project
E-mail <leo@epcapitalgroup.com>
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Andrew McKillop
Senior Partner
EP Capital Pty Ltd
Mount Hawthorn
Western Australia
Australia 6016
Phone: +61 411 771 895
at 07:47 pm
Is anyone who reads this familiar with a list of good investments (companies, ETF or Mutual fund) that focus on Rare Earth resources?
If so, please let me know at ettienne3@mindspring.com
Thanks,
Steve
at 06:05 am
A: Energy extracted from any currently proposed Hydrogen based energy system do not involve splitting any atom, and certainly not Hydrogen, which would be a very tall order indeed.
B: The best current, and far less than commercially viable, source of Hydrogen for use as fuel requires stripping Hydrogen from methane, i.e. natural gas. Direct use of compressed natural gas as fuel is a much more efficient use of said natural gas.
C: Magnets of any kind do not contribute to the process of stripping Hydrogen from methane.
at 03:18 am
In response to your rare earth metal article I have seen so many problems with batteries and the neodymium magnet supply if you want to move away from petrol is hydrogen not a viable alternative, ie a hydrogen combustion engine? I understand the hydrogen fuel cells would still need the magnets for the induction. You could split hydrogen via wind and solar generated power at any time of the day without having the mismatch of supply and demand that solar and wind present, while nuclear plants could split hydrogen during the night time.
Thanks for the great articles & I would really appreciate a reply.