Insight
Cost of expanding the rare earths supply chain
Report summary
The global energy transition to a lower-carbon future is driving the adoption of new energy technologies such as electric vehicles (EVs) and wind turbines. This is fuelling an increasing demand for rare earth elements used in permanent magnets, namely neodymium, praseodymium, dysprosium and terbium. Decades of experience in production and development, extensive integration, legislative support and financial incentives has solidified China’s dominant position in the rare earths industry. China currently accounts for 63% and 85% of global mined and refined supply, respectively. The downstream portion of the rare earth magnet value chain becomes increasingly China-centred, raising supply security concerns for key renewable technologies. This has encouraged governments around the world to develop and expand supply chains outside of China, but can these projects succeed in a pricing environment controlled by China?
Table of contents
- Introduction
- What does the project pipeline look like?
-
Incentive price
- Alternative sources of rare earths are an attractive opportunity
- Australia, a future rare earths hub?
-
Production cost analysis
- Processing costs dominate overall operating costs
- Importance of by-product credits
- Conclusions
Tables and charts
This report includes 4 images and tables including:
- Mined supply project pipeline
- Refined supply project pipeline
- Incentive price by region
- Cost curve for developing projects by main cost segment
What's included
This report contains:
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