Rare earth metals or elements are a category of precious metals that are little known but found in a variety of consumables and manufacturing components found in cell phones, automobile parts, bank notes, superconductors, and fibre optic communication systems.

Before discussing these investment opportunities, it is important to briefly describe these rare earth elements or precious metals which include the following:

• Cerium which is used to make automobile catalytic converters and other pollution control equipment. Cerium assists in the reduction of Sulfur Oxide emissions and helps to make diesel burn more efficiently.
• Neodymium is used in the making of magnets and is thus incorporated in the manufacture of cell phones, computers, and audio speakers.
• Holium has the strongest magnetic qualities of any element and is used in the manufacture of medical lasers, dental lasers, and nuclear control rods. In addition, it is also valuable for its glass coloring qualities.
• Dysprosium has unique magnetic-strength qualities that make it useful in the manufacture of lasers, fuel injectors, DVD discs, and other data storage products.
• Thulium is a very rare and expensive metal that has qualities that make it useful in the manufacture of laser-based surgical equipment.
• Yttrium has red phosphor-making qualities that make it useful in the manufacture of red LEDs and superconductors.
• Europium has unique properties that make it useful in the manufacture of particular kinds of lasers. It is also used as part of the chemical process for detecting whether someone has Down’s Syndrome.
• Erbium has silvery-white qualities which make it useful in the manufacture of photographic filters, optical amplifiers, and the coloring of sunglasses and certain kinds of jewelery.

China currently provides 95 percent of the world’s supply of rare earth elements. This concentration of supply as well as increased global demands for these metals has led to a flurry of exploration projects around the world to mitigate the situation.

The following stocks whose companies are involved in the exploration and mining of rare earth elements are worth investigating:

Avalon Rare Metals: a Canadian rare metals and minerals exploration company that 100 percent owns an advanced development-stage project, Nechalocho Rare Earth Element Deposits that is located in the Northwest Territories of Canada.

Aluminum Corporation of China (Chinalco): the world’s second largest alumina producer and third largest primary aluminum producer. This company is listed on the New York, Hong Kong, and Shanghai stock exchanges. It recently announced that it is investing 1.5 billion dollars to develop rare earth metal deposits in China.

Lynas Corporation: an Australian Stock Exchange listed company that has access to mines in Mount Weld, Australia which is known to have the richest known deposits of rare earth metals in the world.

Molycorp Minerals: a producer of rare earth oxides that owns the Mountain Pass mine in San Bernadino, California. The company currently produces approximately 3000 tons of commercial rare earth materials a year. It is currently expanding a processing plant in Mountain Pass with the aim of becoming a leading integrated mine-to-manufacture producer.

Quest Rare Minerals: a Canadian-based explorer that is currently focused on advancing several rare earth projects in Canada’s premier rare earth exploration areas: the Strange Lake area of northeastern Québec, the Kenora area of northwestern Ontario and the Plaster Rock area of northwestern New Brunswick.

Rare Element Resources: is an explorer of rare earth elements and gold deposits with a 100 percent interest in the Bear Lodge Property in northeastern Wyoming.

Tasman Metals: is a Canadian mining company that focuses on exploring and developing rare earth properties in the Scandinavian regions of Finland, Norway, and Sweden.

Sources
AvalonRareMetals.com
Chinalco.com.cn
InvestU.com
LynasCorp.com
Molycorp.com
QuestRareMinerals.com
RareElementResources.com
Street.com
TasmanMetals.com