Canadian rare-earth stocks rise sharply; China export quota slashing

Junior Canadian miners may find its exhilarating as China brings down export quotas for rare earths. They are the alternative sources to Chinese opportunism and China s loss is their gain.

The respective stocks have picked up momentum registering sharp gains.

For instance, Avalon Rare Metals (TSX: AVL-T) at the time of filing this report was trading at C$6.57 up by 44.08%. The miner is developing its Nechalacho project in the Northwest Territories.

Rare Element Resources Ltd.( TSX: RES-X14) was trading at C$ 14.76, a high of 42.33% while, Dacha Strategic Metals (TSX: DSM) stood at C$ 0.49, a gain of 13.95%.

Mines in US (Molycorp s Mountain Pass in California) and Australia (Lynas s Mount Weld) also stand to gain as China, accounting for 97% of the world s rare earths output slashes its export quota of the minerals crucial to producing goods such as smart phones, electric cars and wind turbines.

But those deposits are inclined to light rare earths like cerium and lanthanum, while heavy elements such as dysprosium europium and terbium are found more in Canada.

Besides, Canadian companies like Great Western Minerals, Avalon and Stans Energy are all sweating it out to bring heavy rare earth projects live by with outputs pegged not farther than 2013.

26 other companies which are public have rare-earth projects in the pipeline even as quality deposits with economic feasibility to be on-stream are scarce.