Rare Earths - More valuable than gold itself?

[nuggethunting]

Hello All,

Here is an interesting article about Rare Earths being discarded in the early days, now potentially more valuable than the gold mined originally.

http://news.yahoo.com/gold-rush-era-discards-could-fuel-cellphones-tvs-133752521.html

There is also a lot of talk about valuable Rare Earths in Black Sands.

Rob Allison

[AZNuggetBob]

This is a good point Rob

I mentioned it in a responce to a black sand thred a while back. Its about time we get out from under china's thumb on this. fact is there is plenty of it in the U.S.A. but until recently no one really persued it because of the low price. AzNuggetBob

[Reno Chris]

Hi Rob -

In spite of the article, rare earths are generally uncommon with gold and silver ores at anything more than trace levels. There are a few exceptions however. In the Boise, ID gold placers, the heavy concentrates have a heavy yellow sand with the magnetite and hematite black sand. The yellow sand is Monazite, a rare earth mineral and it has been recovered in the past from these placers. It was at one time a by product of gold mining. For more into see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monazite

[AZNuggetBob]

Personaly I think china is catching on and starting to realize that there are many rare earth mines starting up worldwide and a few here in the U.S.to fill demand,

and are trying to unload their stock piles.

but it is also a matter regulations we have to deal with in the U.S.and Im not saying that's a bad thing. Take a look at the air in Bejing.

Rare earths are really not something that should be related to black sands.

Ive seen rare earths brought up many times in assay values in the past but just to help artificially raise the value of the known placer gold ores reserves tested or to help artificially raise the value of a given mine but its rare to have enough to set up a prossesing plant to recover or even transport the rare earths on a small scale just doesnt justify the cost of it.
Processing of it can be exspencive and because we had a cheap source for it thats were China comes in, they have plenty of cheap labor and lax mining regulation, and staying within the

regulations here in the U.S. and dealing with in some cases toxic byproductes can significantly add to the cost of production..

I know of a few rare earth investers but I have to say its just not as much fun looking at a pile of dirt sitting on your desk as it is having a gold nugget or bar.

Take care

AzNuggetBob.