Natural Resources committee  If we actually are able to attract, again, the infrastructure that needs to be built to be able to separate these elements to produce metals, to produce the parts and so forth.... It's basically to do what China did in the last few years, which is they made it harder and harder to export the rare earths, and they attracted a number of....

Natural Resources committee  What does that do? I'll start with the second part of your question. Canada will continue to be dependent, basically buying these elements for automotive manufacturing as well as green technology, as it emerges. But what is happening most importantly and what I tried to indicate is that there is a willingness to develop infrastructure outside China, to separate these elements, and to build the supply chain outside China.

Natural Resources committee  By rate, do you mean speed?

Natural Resources committee  For instance, in Brazil they have actually put out a white paper. I believe the government has approached at one point, Vale, which is one of the largest mining companies, to investigate potentially the production to develop separation technology. Another company in Brazil, which is CBMM, has announced that they have invested $50 million in trying to separate rare earths as well.

Natural Resources committee  Thank you to the committee for this opportunity. I will start by going straight to the point that these elements are critical. I just would like to emphasize that there are light rare earth elements as well as heavy rare earth elements that are critical. For instance, for magnets, neodymium and praseodymium are used in significant amounts in some of the magnets, such as the neodymium iron boron magnets.