Rare Earth Elements

London Commodity Markets have unrivalled access and expertise when it comes to trading rare earth elements. Rare earth elements are a set of 17 naturally occurring elements which are essential for the high-tech and green technology manufacturing industries.

Rare earth elements are used in the manufacture of smart-phones, iPods, hybrid car batteries, LED televisions, powerful magnets, lasers, wind turbines, solar panels and medicine to fight various cancers amongst others. Rare earth elements are composed of 15 lanthanides accompanied by Yttrium and Scandium.

Rare earth elements are by no means rare, in fact they are abundant in the earth's crust however, rare earth elements are extremely difficult and expensive to extract and refine.
Despite having roughly a third of the global reserves, China currently controls more than 95 per cent of the global rare earth elements supply.
Over the past couple of years, China have moved to cut export quotas of rare earth elements, which has been causing concern from its trading partners, especially Japan, The European Union and the USA who rely on them for the growing outputs of their high-tech manufacturing industries.

Despite several mining projects by companies outside China to provide alternative sources of rare earth elements, experts believe it will be a case of too little, too late. One case in point is dysprosium which is used in the manufacture of hybrid cars, hard disk drives, laser materials, and in the film industry amongst others. In 2003, the price for dysprosium was 23.40 pounds a kilo; today dysprosium is worth more than 2,900 pounds a kilo.
Early this year, Jack Lifton who is considered an authority on rare earth elements said, 'it could be as much as four years before any dysprosium is produced outside China'.
London Commodity Markets believe the growing demand and reduction in supply of rare earth elements has led to the increase in prices, something which is set to continue.

In this short AFP video below US President Obama expresses harsh words toward China's rare earth metal export policies.

Rare Earth Elements:

Yttrium Y	Neodymium Nd	Dysprosium Dy	Lutetium Lu
Lanthanum La	Europium Eu	Holmium Ho	Erbium Er
Cerium Ce	Gadolinium Gd	Promethium Pm	Thulium Tm
Praseodymium Pr	Terbium Tb	Samarium Sm	Ytterbium Yb