MINING.com - a mine of information

96% of non-Chinese rare earth projects will fail, says Jack Lifton

A mining industry consultant says the high processing costs and level of expertise required in bringing rare earth mines into production means most of them will fail.

In an interview with Reuters, Jack Lifton, founder of Technology Metals Research, said of the 244 companies hoping to extract REEs, less than 4% will be profitable:

“The choke point for all the companies is the question of what they can do with the concentrated REM ore once it’s above ground. You can extract the rare earths together, but then you have to separate them…the world’s REM separation capacity is 99 percent Chinese and they have unused capacity,” Lifton said.

“The Chinese overwhelmingly control this and that is the key to the rare earth industry. Without separation capacity, all you have is a loss-making ore concentrate company.”