Avalon well positioned to bring new rare earth supplies to market

Avalon Rare Metals (TSE:AVL)(TSE:AVL) reminded investors how well-positioned it was to bring new supplies of rare earth metals to the market, given the limited supplies outside China.

The company recently attended the Metal-Pages Minor Metals and Rare Earth Conference held in Beijing, China where VP of Sales & Marketing, Pierre Neatby gave an update on the rapid progress Avalon is making on its Nechalacho Heavy Rare Earth Project.

One theme that came up at the conference was that hundreds of new rare earth exploration projects are being promoted around the world. Several of the speakers at the conference noted that, regardless of their size and grade, very few new deposits discovered would ever achieve production due to the relatively small size of the global market outside China - which is 50,000 tonnes in 2015 according to independent rare earth market analyst Dudley Kingsnorth.

The consensus view was that perhaps four to six new producers might emerge outside China to serve this demand over the next five to ten years.

In a recent media interview, Avalon's President Don Bubar reminded viewers that given the small size of the rare earths market outside China, the opportunity to serve this market is really only open to the few first producers or early movers to bring new supply to the market.

In this regard, Avalon was very well positioned, having the most advanced heavy rare earth development project in the world outside China, with the potential to bring a significant new supply to the market by 2015.

Bubar added: "Much of the recent research commentary published on the rare earths industry does not discuss the importance of early mover advantage to the business opportunity nor highlight it as a risk factor for investors."

To be considered "advanced," the consensus view is that a rare earths project must have at least produced a positive pre-feasibility study. Kingsnorth sets the bar even higher stating that only those projects where a successful pilot plant trial has been completed can be considered "advanced." The fact is, very few of the hundreds of exploration projects around the world being characterized as "advanced" by some analysts, actually meet either of these criteria.

Kingsnorth also provided an update of his supply and demand forecast, reducing his estimate on total rare earth demand in 2015 to approximately 170,000 tonnes of rare earth oxide per annum (tpa) from 195,000 tpa nine months ago.

The independent analyst believes that the extraordinarily high prices have reduced demand in some applications where substitution is possible, citing the example of rechargeable batteries where the lithium ion battery can replace the nickel-metal hydride battery which uses the light rare earth lanthanum.

Kingsnorth also notes that the economic slowdown being experienced in many parts of the world will soften demand in the short term but he adds that long-term demand will continue to grow, forecasting 240,000 to 280,000 tpa of global demand in 2020.

Kingsnorth emphasized that the heavy rare earth elements europium, terbium, dysprosium, and erbium along with the light rare earth neodymium will continue to be in short supply. Dysprosium was singled out by several conference speakers as an element whose future supply is a significant concern.

Avalon Rare Metals is a mineral exploration and development company focused on rare metals deposits in Canada. Its flagship project, the 100%-owned Nechalacho Deposit at Thor Lake in the North West Territories, is emerging as one of the largest undeveloped rare earth elements resources in the world.

Its exceptional enrichment in the more valuable "heavy" rare earth elements, which are key to enabling advances in green energy technology and other growing high-tech applications, is one of the few potential sources of these critical elements outside of China, currently the source of 95% of world supply.