From Clint Cox, The Anchor House: Chinese rare earth export quotas may be misunderstood or misinterpreted, but they are providing the impetus for a number of surprising changes across the industry.
Mass confusion began last year, when a policy draft from the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) was released, stating that the ministry was considering further cuts in rare earth export quotas and the cessation of exports of certain forms of a few rare earth elements.
This created a media frenzy in the West as multiple sources interpreted this to mean that there would soon be no rare earths available outside of China and that everything from green energy technology to US defence applications were at risk from this possible shift in policy.
Many junior exploration companies jumped on this news in order to promote their own rare earth element (REE) projects outside...