Jim, thanks for sharing. Of your list I'm long MCP. Rare earth elements (REE) became notorious on the stock market in 2010 when the Chinese started restricting their export after having earlier cornered the industry via price dumping. This shock created a REE price bubble and a bubble in REE related stock prices. A lot of people must have lost their shirts on MCP. I bought MCP after the bubble burst, in BMW fashion when I thought it had bottomed. On the other hand I bought the junior miners Rare Element Resources (REE) and Ucore Rare Metals (UURAF) earlier so I have a loss in both.

The above is proof that being bullish can be costly, let me explain. When the Chinese restricted exports it became clear that America was in a bad position, dependent on a tough competitor for critical commodities. America needed REE independence. The 17 REE elements are grouped into light and heavy with the light being abundant and cheap and the heavy being somewhat scarce and much more valuable. This led me to search for North American REE properties. MCP's Mountain Pass property has mainly light REEs so I gave it a pass. UURAF and REE have heavy REE rich properties on American soil which was the reason for buying them.

Of the three REE outfits I think that Ucore Rare Metals has the best future. Its property, Bokan – Dotson Ridge, is in Alaska, a mining friendly state with excellent access to the sea. They have received assistance from both Alaska and the DoD. One of the main difficulties of REE mining is separating the valuable metals from the undesirable radioactive elements. Ucore is working on a novel separation method. The UURAF story is developing nicely but it will take a lot of patience before they start shipping product. http://ucore.com/

Rare Element Resources' REE property is the Bear Lodge Property in Wyoming. http://www.rareelementresources.com/s/Home.asp

Denny Schlesinger