COMMERCE RESOURCES (€ 0,208)

TCMR: What other companies do you follow in that space?

SR: Another company is Commerce Resources Corp. (CCE:TSX.V; D7H:FSE; CMRZF:OTCQX). It has the Tantalum niobium project in British Columbia. It recently completed a PEA of the property, but its main asset now is its rare earth project in Quebec, which has produced a lot of positive news for the last 6 to 12 months. It recently came out with a huge increase in its resource estimate, and its initial estimate was one of the largest outside of China. The newer resource has doubled the figures, so that's a significant development. It identified middle rare earths (MREEs) and heavy rare earths (HREEs), which are more valuable than light rare earths (LREEs),close to the surface of the property.

TCMR: Are the price dynamics different for HREEs and LREEs due to respective export quotas?

SR: Yes, exactly. Prices of light and abundant rare earths dropped much more than other rare earths that are more scarcely available. So there's been a wide fluctuation, and different commodities in the rare earth sector have reacted differently. But overall, the rare earth market has been hit significantly in the last 6 to 12 months.

TCMR: Commerce has, as you mentioned, both MREEs and HREEs. Do you expect those prices to remain high or perhaps escalate?

SR: Overall, we saw significant price increases in the rare earth market, increasing as much as five- or tenfold in some cases over the last few years. We've since seen sort of a correction. But even at these relatively lower prices, a lot of projects are economic. So we wouldn't need to see an increase in prices to make these companies look favorable.