Carbonatites: The Cornerstones of the Rare Earth Space
​Today, Stephan Bogner from Rockstone Research published an update on Commerce Resources Corp. (TSX.V: CCE).
When the company attended the Argus Metal Pages REE Conference a month ago in Denver, Colorado, they were the only REE junior present that was active on their project. Yes, there were other REE juniors in attendance, but these were companies working on new technologies, as alternatives to the industry standard of solvent extraction (SX). And no, Commerce Resources is not looking for success from any new technologies as standard processing works very efficiently for Ashram.
No doubt, the REE market has changed dramatically in the last 5 years, and the main takeaway from this conference is something that would probably surprise most market pundits. It’s that everyone can see the exponential drop in prices over the last 5 years, but very few realize that actual REE demand and usage have increased over the same time period.
These seemingly contradictory trends, with lower prices not being a reflection of lowered demand, is something highly unusual, and the simple answer for this behaviour is that prices went too high in the aftermath of the panic in the streets following the Senkaku boat incident and the Chinese cutting off supplies to Japan.
Additionally, the fallout from 2011 means that there has been at least one general design change in the permanent magnets and their REE recipe, coming from the work of Siemens. This change of recipe has reduced the percentage amount of dysprosium being used – a negative to any REE junior whose economics are mostly tied into the value of dysprosium – and then the concomitant percentage increase in either neodymium or praseodymium. This means that the REE market has actually morphed into being even more in line with the distribution of the Ashram Deposit than it was previously – a deposit which has a leading global enrichment in those magnet feed REOs.
Commerce Resources is engaged in the business of acquiring, exploring, developing and evaluating mineral resource properties, and either joint venturing or developing these properties further or disposing of them when the evaluation is completed. Co. is in the exploration stage and has interests in properties located in British Columbia and Quebec, Canada. The recoverability of amounts shown for resource properties is dependent upon the discovery of economically recoverable reserves, continuation of Co.'s interest in the underlying mineral claims, the ability of Co. to obtain financing to complete their development, and future profitable production or disposition thereof.
Rockstone is a research house specialized in the analysis and valuation of capital markets and publicly listed companies. The focus is set on exploration, development and production of resource deposits as well as marcoeconomic analysis of commodity and currency markets. Our international team of five analysts bring our German and English speaking readership a wealth of experience from the commodity markets: Stephan Bogner (mining analyst), John P. Barry (professional geologist), Chris Berry (macroeconomist), Prof. Dr. Hans Bocker (award-winning book author), and Boris Gerjovic (fundamental analyst).
Unfortunately, this report is not available for the investor type or country you selected.
Browse all ResearchPool reportsReport is subscription only.
Thank you, your report is ready.
Thank you, your report is ready.