Today, Rockstone Research published a research update on the rare earth elements (REE) market highlighting Commerce Resources Corp. as its top pick in the REE space. Numerous other REE stocks are analyzed as well, whereas mining analyst Stephan Bogner comes to the conclusion that Commerce is leading the pack and that all other peers are lagging behind in terms of metallurgy, which is the crucial criteria of success.
Those REE deposits in development that have the greatest chances of success (i.e. being developed into a mine, and thus, offering the highest share price appreciation potential no matter if REE prices remain low) are those that host a REE mineralization out of which a >30% TREO mineral concentrate can be produced with an industry standard process that makes economic sense.
Unfortunately for REE investors, today there exist not many undeveloped REE deposits hosting a mineralization out of which a high enough grade mineral concentrate can be produced, and easily processed, which would be saleable to global REE processors (also known as separation or refining facilities), and from which the numerous REE end-products, which are saleable to the industry, could be produced.
Thus, those few REE development companies capable of producing a >30% TREO mineral concentrate should (and will) be the focus of REE investors, if not already. According to our research only three active development companies have attained this base requirement:
The full research report can be downloaded as a PDF here.
The following REE stocks are analyzed in the report:
1. Molycorp Inc.
2. Lynas Corp.
3. Greenland Minerals & Energy Ltd.
4. Tasman Metals Ltd.
5. Commerce Resources Corp.
6. Arafura Resources Ltd.
7. Great Western Minerals Group Ltd.
8. Frontier Rare Earths Ltd.
9. Peak Resources Ltd.
10. Quest Rare Minerals Ltd.
11. Texas Rare Earth Resources Corp.
12. Geomega Resources Inc.
13. Namibia Rare Earths Inc.
14. Matamec Exploration Inc.
Commerce chart next page
About the Author
Stephan Bogner (Dipl. Kfm. in Economics) is a mining and commodity analyst with Rockstone Research Ltd., an independent research house specialized in the analysis and valuation of capital markets and publicly listed companies. The focus is set on the exploration, development and production of resource deposits.