Mr. Chairman, the question relates to the R and D gap analysis and its outcome in 2011. We conducted a gap analysis in which we consulted with all industry associations, universities, and provinces and territories in order to identify the technological gaps that we have in this area of science.
The five areas that were identified, as shown in the presentation, are: the mineralogical characterization of rare earth elements and the minerals; secondly, the physical separation, which is the milling stage that we call “beneficiation”, in which we need to concentrate the mineral that contains the rare earth elements; the third area is hydrometallurgy, the separation and leaching, which is the most difficult and most complex part during the hydrometallurgical processing of rare earth; then there is the production of reference material, which is important to ensure that the analyses being conducted in laboratories are reliable before producing analytical results; and the other area of research identified during the gap analysis was the study of the toxicity of rare earth elements,. As much as we would like to see complete recovery of rare earths, there is a possibility that we'll have some leaching of rare earths into the effluents, and we want to make sure that we're studying the toxicity of the rare earths into the effluent streams.