Issue link: http://resourceworld.uberflip.com/i/1174544
O C T O B E R / N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 9 www.resourceworld.com 21 Rare Earths gaining attention YOU CAN'T SEE THEM BUT THEY ARE EVERYWHERE AND CRUCIAL IN SO MANY WAYS by Ellsworth Dickson M ost people are totally unaware of how much they depend on the 17 rare earths in their daily lives. A short list of applications would include cameras and telescope lenses, catalytic converters, aircraft engines, X-ray and MRI scanning systems, TV and computer screens, the military and magnets in your car and speakers. While he didn't say so, President Donald Trump recently may have tried to buy Greenland for its rare earths; that's because the US hardly produces any (15,000 tonnes) while China totally dominates that industrial sector, having produced 120,000 tonnes in 2018. In an interview, Donald Bubar, President and CEO of Avalon Advanced Materials Inc. [AVL-TSX; AVLNF-OTCQX; OU5-FSE], which has a 100% inter- est in the advanced Nechalacho Project 100 km south of Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, provided his insights into cur- rent rare earth developments. RESOURCE WORLD: It was interesting to read the letter from the Pentagon seeking Rare Earth projects. What does that tell you about America's dependence on China for Rare Earths? DONALD BUBAR: It tells us there has been a reawakening of the reality that there is no security of supply of Rare Earth Elements, along with a lot of other critical minerals needed in modern technology. RW: Why do you think the US has been so lax in developing its own, or other non- Chinese Rare Earth sources, especially for its military, when they've had years to do so? DB: It takes a long time to develop new Rare Earths production and, there may have been an assumption after the Rare Earth bubble happened 10 years ago that industry would eventually start to bring that supply along to market but despite all the interest and investment made at the time, the only company that really got there was Lynas Corporation in Australia. Most of the other companies, like Avalon, got partway there but couldn't get to the finish line after the Chinese relaxed the export quotas. Users around the world who were con- cerned about security of supply sort of breathed a sigh of relief that maybe they didn't need to invest in creating that sup- Geologist Tom Hildahl performs a Deviflex test during drilling operations at Avalon's Nechalacho rare earths project at Thor Lake, Northwest Territories. Photo courtesy Avalon Advanced Materials Inc.