Over the past month, this is how the cost of Pr-Nd has risen:

17/05/2011: RMB880,000.00 per ton;

21/05/2011: RMB1,000,000.00 per ton;

27/05/2011: RMB1,200,000.00 per ton;

30/05/2011: RMB1,250,000.00 per ton;

04/06/2011: RMB1,300,000.00 per ton;

07/06/2011: RMB1,350,000.00 per ton;

08/06/2011: RMB1,400,000.00 per ton;

14/06/2011: RMB1,600,000.00 per ton;

In addition, yesterday a spokesman of the Chinese Government stated on CCTV news, "it caused much loss exploring rare earth in the past years, so we now control the Rare Earth Industry strictly. Until now, the behaviour of China for rare earth materials have been in accord with WTO. China will continue to provide rare earth to other countries of the world, as well as continue to control this industry, we hope to get understanding from other countries.."

This basically means that China believes their policy is correct and will not change.

As a result, we cannot expect there to be any fall in prices until other sources of supply come on stream (such as the USA).