Rare earths, the little-known elements behind everything from -iPods to hybrid cars and eco-friendly light bulbs, are set to boom in Australia thanks to an export clampdown by China, experts say.
Industry sources and analysts say Australia’s vast reserves of the obscure metals with highly prized properties could make it one of the world’s leading producers in just a few years.
“By about 2014 we should be one of the dominant suppliers of rare earths to the world. And we will compete with China for that,” a long-term investor told reporters. “We’re a small country but we’re going to be the Saudi Arabia of rare earths.”
World attention shifted to Australia’s nascent rare earths industry after China, which dominates global production, began restricting exports, sending shudders through major consumers Japan, Europe and the US.
Australian experts say China has simply used up its tightened annual export quota, playing down fears of a trade embargo on high-tech producer Japan over a bitter territorial dispute.
However, the scare triggered a rapid reappraisal of rare earths sources other than China, which cornered the market with about 90 percent of global supply but now needs growing amounts for its domestic market.
Rare earths like super-magnet dysprosium and red-glowing europium are vital components in hard-drives and computer screens, while the metals also make possible laser missile systems, wind turbines and solar panels.
“We touch rare earths every day of our lives but people are not aware of the applications they’re in,” said Matthew James, vice president of corporate and business development at Australia’s Lynas Corp.
“They are underpinning societal trends which are not going to reverse. We have to become more energy efficient, we have to become better in managing our environmental footprint,” James said. “People are not going to accept larger, clunkier devices, they want smaller, faster, lighter. These are trends which are driving growth in the rare earth market.”
The US, fearful of further restrictions from China, is scurrying to resume production, while Japanese companies, leading makers of flat-screen TVs, digital cameras and smartphones, reportedly turned to Lynas.
“Japan should diversify its supply and better manage risk in the long-run. It’s awkward to rely on China for 90 percent of its supplies,” said Toru Taniuchi, a professor at Japan’s Teikyo University.
“But the interests of buyers and sellers have to meet in order for new entrants to the market to succeed,” he said, referring to Australian suppliers.
Lynas, among five companies with proven Australian deposits, according to www.australianrareearths.com, will next year be the first Australian producer to come on stream when it shifts some 11,000 tonnes from a new plant in Malaysia.
The company will double output to 22,000 tonnes a year by the end of 2012, worth about US$1.1 billion at current prices.
James said Lynas had about 1.4 million tonnes at its Mount Weld holding in Western Australia and could be selling to China within a decade as the giant country’s supplies dwindle in the face of rocketing consumer demand.
DECOUPLING? In a sign of deeper US-China technology decoupling, Apple has held initial talks about using Baidu’s generative AI technology in its iPhones, the Wall Street Journal said China has introduced guidelines to phase out US microprocessors from Intel Corp and Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) from government PCs and servers, the Financial Times reported yesterday. The procurement guidance also seeks to sideline Microsoft Corp’s Windows operating system and foreign-made database software in favor of domestic options, the report said. Chinese officials have begun following the guidelines, which were unveiled in December last year, the report said. They order government agencies above the township level to include criteria requiring “safe and reliable” processors and operating systems when making purchases, the newspaper said. The US has been aiming to boost domestic semiconductor
Nvidia Corp earned its US$2.2 trillion market cap by producing artificial intelligence (AI) chips that have become the lifeblood powering the new era of generative AI developers from start-ups to Microsoft Corp, OpenAI and Google parent Alphabet Inc. Almost as important to its hardware is the company’s nearly 20 years’ worth of computer code, which helps make competition with the company nearly impossible. More than 4 million global developers rely on Nvidia’s CUDA software platform to build AI and other apps. Now a coalition of tech companies that includes Qualcomm Inc, Google and Intel Corp plans to loosen Nvidia’s chokehold by going
ENERGY IMPACT: The electricity rate hike is expected to add about NT$4 billion to TSMC’s electricity bill a year and cut its annual earnings per share by about NT$0.154 Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has left its long-term gross margin target unchanged despite the government deciding on Friday to raise electricity rates. One of the heaviest power consuming manufacturers in Taiwan, TSMC said it always respects the government’s energy policy and would continue to operate its fabs by making efforts in energy conservation. The chipmaker said it has left a long-term goal of more than 53 percent in gross margin unchanged. The Ministry of Economic Affairs concluded a power rate evaluation meeting on Friday, announcing electricity tariffs would go up by 11 percent on average to about NT$3.4518 per kilowatt-hour (kWh)
OPENING ADDRESS: The CEO is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing and artificial intelligence at the trade show’s opening on June 3, TAITRA said Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) chairperson and chief executive officer Lisa Su (蘇姿丰) is to deliver the opening keynote speech at Computex Taipei this year, the event’s organizer said in a statement yesterday. Su is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing (HPC) in the artificial intelligence (AI) era to open Computex, one of the world’s largest computer and technology trade events, at 9:30am on June 3, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) said. Su is to explore how AMD and the company’s strategic technology partners are pushing the limits of AI and HPC, from data centers to