Molycorp Minerals has been in the news lately, but they probably haven’t been on the radar of most mobile phone users. Yet recent steps taken by the company in conjunction with the US Government could make a significant impact on whether consumers will be able to continue to upgrade and sell their old mobiles in future.
Molycorp are reopening a rare earth metals mine in the South West US as part of an attempt to fill a widening rare earth metals supply gap caused by reductions in exports by China, who control almost all of the global supply.
Molycorp intend to produce 9 of the 17 rare earths amounting to 20,000 tonnes annually by mid 2012, equivalent to about a quarter of current imports from China by the West. The company could probably increase production to twice this figure within the period, if required. Only 55 acres of the 2,200 acre site has been exposed so far.
However, there are fears that even production at this level will not be enough to satisfy the increasing demand for leading edge environmental technology. In addition, to the production of electronic products such as mobile phones, rare earth metals are used in the manufacture of lanthanum for hybrid cars, neodymium for wind turbine magnets and europium for energy efficient lighting.
To give an idea of the emerging supply gap, it has been estimated that demand for wind turbines alone will be equivalent to seven times the capacity of the Molycorp mine. Between 10 to 20 more mines are likely to be needed to meet the global demand.