"Huge rare earth reserve discovered in Turkey, but experts caution that ‘grade is king’"

Not just grade. The composition of a deposit, the amounts of the 17 rare earth elements is critical. As one example, the Mountain Pass mine in the U.S. despite its relatively high grade (8% REEs) is actually not as valuable as some lower grade mines with a more profitable mix.

Additionally, exploitation of a REE resource is highly dependent on processing and supply chain factors that can not quickly be brought into being, it's one thing to have the deposit, quite another to have, for example, the end product, a neodymium magnet.

We have some experience with this stuff, if interested see after the jump.

From MarketWatch, July 7:

The site in the central Anatolia region contains 694 million tons of rare earth reserves, according to a statement from Turkey’s Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources. 

The world’s second-largest rare earth reserve has been discovered in Turkey, officials say, but experts warn that turning rare earth deposits into financial success is easier said than done.

The site in the central Anatolia region contains 694 million tons of rare earth reserves, according to a statement from Turkey’s Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources. The world’s largest rare earth field is an 800-million-ton site in China, officials added.

Rare earth elements are used in a host of industries, from consumer technology to the automotive sector and aviation.

Of the 17 rare earth elements, 10 will be produced at the site, according to Fatih Dönmez, Turkey’s minister of energy and natural resources. “We will process 570,000 tons of ore annually,” he said, in a translated statement. Some 10,000 tons of rare earth oxide will be obtained from the processed ore, Dönmez added. On Friday the minister tweeted that construction of a pilot plant, which will process 1,200 tons of rare earth annually, will be completed later this year.

Experts, however, say that despite their name, rare earths are not so uncommon....

....MUCH MORE

For more background we have hundreds of posts from the last boom, focusing mainly on Molycorp which owned Mountain Pass before it went bankrupt and on the big dog of Chinese mining:

"With a Name Like Inner Mongolia Baotou Steel Rare-Earth Hi-Tech Co., it has to be good ( 600111:Shanghai)"

The big dog has since changed its name, now China Northern Rare Earth (Group) High-Tech Co.,Ltd but it is still the big dog with the same stock symbol on the Shanghai Stock Exchange: 600111.

Here's a nostalgic 2015 post looking back a half-dacade: 

Rare earth metals: Objects of power and risk

Just the words, "Rare Earth" brings back memories: “My old MG TC. A blond girl, tan from the summer sun, in the Hamptons, beer on the beach, ‘Unchained Melody,’ the little bar in the Village.”

Uh, wait. That was Adam Smith in our 2012 post  "Adam Smith on Oil Shale (Now with Voodoo Beach Bunnies)". Ahem. Never mind.

Our memories are more like trading Molycorp for three triples, short and long, on the blog, in public, from IPO to bankruptcy or if you will "From tombstone to tombstone".

Or commenting on the passing parade: Luxembourg-based Rare Earth Company Hoping to Mine in South Africa by 2014 Does Oversubscribed IPO in Toronto (FRO.tsx), or quoting one of the, if not the, best books on investing and life:

...Words like "uranium", "rare earths", etc. seem to be magic to

 those unsuspecting who are often fleeced...

Gerald M. Loeb

The Battle for Investment Survival

Simon & Schuster, 1935

Good times.