Digging Into The Rare Earths And EVs Rush With Don Lay

The 2020-21 bull market has seen many familiar themes recycled amidst a very liquid public market environment. The rare earths market, and its flag bearer Molycorp, may not have been the most obvious boom to re-emerge, but here we are. Molycorp's descendant, MP Materials, came public via a SPAC last year and is trading at a higher valuation than the legacy company ever did. To break down the recent moves and what it means, we speak with Don Lay, VP of Corporate Development at Medallion  Resources, a rare earths technology company based in Canada. Don was previously CEO of the company and has a lot of firsthand experience to share. We go through the ins and outs of this story, including China’s market position, the import of electrification in cars, and how MP Materials is back on the scene. Topics Covered 3:15 minute mark - Background on Don as well as MP and rare earths boom 8:45 - The Senkaku Islands incident 12:00 - Processing the rare earth minerals and the market power there 15:30 - Where China’s competitive edge comes from and Lynas's role in the industry 24:00 - The challenges of developing a greenfield rare earths project 26:30 - Demand for rare earths 30:30 - The end of the internal combustion engine 35:30 - Explaining MP Materials’ revival 41:30 - Where is the market power in rare earths 46:00 - How the rare earths market might evolve 51:00 - Where electric and hybrid vehicle demand goes and what it means 55:00 - How the EV frenzy affect operations for rare earth miners 1:00:00 - How this compares to past bubbles 1:03:00 - Tesla's position 1:08:00 - Background on Medallion 1:14:00 - The environmental costs