BC Business
A crisis is rising around the critical minerals and rare earth elements used in many of today's electronic gadgets. Demand is growing and supply is dwindling, making for a great investment opportunity. There’s a growing mineral supply crisis lurking in your cell phone, computer, in green energy mechanisms, and probably in your car. There's also an investment opportunity. A conference in Vancouver is trying to make sense of it all.
There’s a growing mineral supply crisis lurking in your cell phone, computer, in green energy mechanisms, and probably in your car. There’s also an investment opportunity. A conference in Vancouver is trying to make sense of it all.
It’s no secret that Howe Street is buzzing these days as mining companies try to cash in on the commodity metals boom that is largely being driven by huge demand in Asia.
But another, much quieter, story that could be just as big is the development of critical minerals and rare earth materials.
Gold, silver and copper we can all understand, and often invest in. But what do you know about critical minerals like tantalum, palladium, or lithium? How about the 16 rare earth elements like lanthanum (La),cerium (Ce), and praseodymium (Pr)?
Don’t look at me because I don’t know what they are either.
Hardly anyone does, except to know that rare earths and critical metals are crucial for manufacturing of automobiles (ie, catalytic converters), many green energy materials such as solar panels and wind turbines, most electronics such as computers and notebooks, the 5 billion or so cell phones currently circulating in the world, and numerous other technological wonders of the modern world.
Apparently, there is a growing crisis in the world because the supply of these critical minerals is dwindling, and the demand is growing as technology advances at a ever-increasing pace. Some recycling is in place around the world to recover critical elements, but the majority is still going into landfills and other waste repositories.
It’s for that reason that Cambridge House International has hastily put together an investment conference on the subject to precede its annual resource investment conference that begins Sunday, January 23.
The Critical Metals Investment Symposium, Jan. 21, and Jan. 22, according to Cambridge House, is “the first conference in the world to bring together the multitude of parties involved in finding solutions to the developing world crisis in the supply shortage of rare earth and strategic metals.”
Seems to me that anyone in the technology business or just an enthusiast of the constantly increasing array of electronic gadgets that we all have to carry around today might want to drop in and find out what makes them tick — and what the future holds for the materials that go into their manufacture. (Hint: they’re likely going to be more expensive.)
Investors always on the hunt for the next big thing will probably also get an earful about an investment area that’s going to be much larger in future.
Even if you don’t know tantalum from talcum powder, or praseodymium from your patootie, what matters is that there is a supply shortage. Which means there’s going to be a run-up in price. Which means an investment opportunity for those with the …um … critical courage elements to go for it.