Excerpts:-- . Investors should only be concerned with technologies that have an immediate or near-term impact on the economics of the sector in which they exist. In the long term most new technologies, as first presented, fail to achieve permanence. The deciding feature is, as always, economics, but this is rarely discussed other than in the context of “revolutionary” or “game changing” hype. - It is that the technologies for the extraction, separation, purification and fabrication of end-user products of each of them, including the individual rare earths, have evolved rapidly in the just the last few years to the point where prior analyses of the feasibility and bankability of such projects must now be rechecked and recalculated so that they will be up-to-date rather than obsolete. . Additionally it is critical to examine where in the individual supply chains for the GLARE materials the venture undergoing due diligence plans to enter the market. This additional issue has been overlooked, - ((except by Zennatta) The core financial issue, whether or not new production of a GLARE material can be done at less cost than existing production, is still, of course, valid as the defining metric for choosing to go with a new process technology. Additionally it is critical to examine where in the individual supply chains for the GLARE materials the venture undergoing due diligence plans to enter the market. This additional issue has been overlooked, sometimes purposefully; sometimes due to ignorance by almost all of the GLARE ventures now seeking capital to go into or remain in development. Many previously prohibitive costs of entry due to traditional processing for traditional markets and forms must now be urgently re-visited as new technologies rapidly move from bench scale to pilot plant testing and in doing so are on the verge of replacing other, older although proven in use, technologies. . It seems to have been conveniently forgotten by many promoters that although it seems that only less expensive (in the sense of CAPEX/OPEX) technologies can replace existing ones this conclusion cannot be reached without examining the individual costs in each segment of the supply chain, as well as of the processing chain, as they are affected by the “new” technology, that the venture wishes to include before entering the market. . Graphite has also undergone a true revolution in utility in just the last generation. Because it is already produced at a level of more than 1,000,000 tons per year it is not defined (by me anyway) as a rare technology material, but in fact technology has turned this definition on its head. I am now naming graphene, a form of graphite, as a rare technology material. The race to produce graphene from natural graphite has accelerated just in the last two years as more and more high tech applications (electronics, structural materials, and chemical catalysis, for example) have been shown to be possible and extremely beneficial) pOverlooked by investors, who rarely examine the impact of technologies on the demand for technology metals and materials, as they relate to the production of metals and materials are the huge 21st century increases in global steel production and in global aluminum production, just to name the two largest sources of demand for graphite (as electrodes and crucibles), have increased the demand for natural graphite dramatically. . Junior technology metals and materials ventures that have not begun to produce now have an opportunity to separate themselves from the herd. They can adopt new or newly applied technologies to reduce the overall costs of the supply chain for delivering end-use products. When they achieve overall costs less than those from supply chains using traditional technologies that is the time to buy the juniors and sell the seniors. - Article by Jack Lifton, today, in Investorintel. Peter. See more at: http://investorintel.com/technology-metals-intel/lifton-on-the-glare-of-technology-materials-graphite-lithium-and-rare-earths/#stha