Roskill Rare Earths Conference

BBY Senior Resources Analyst Mike Harrowell attended the Roskill Rare Earths conference on November 14-15. There were 230 delegates in attendance, making it the largest such conference in over 20 years. Customers or consumers of rare earths made up the majority of attendees which highlighted the degree of concern among non Chinese manufacturers concerning supply. Many companies attended the event, including the likes of Lynas, Arafura and Northern Minerals, all covered by BBY and viewed favourably by Mike and the mining team.

The industry believes Chinese domestic prices will stabilise at current levels for some time, and then the Chinese government will seek to push them up to collect more funds for remediation of the environmental damage done from rare earths mining. Mike’s view is that the end of destocking will mean a rebound initially, before the stability.