Don't Get Excited About the Rare Earths

That's what Marketplace says:

Mike Stares runs Rare Earth Metals Inc., which explores for rare earth deposits on land in Canada. According to the Japanese, just one square mile of one of the discovered deposits could meet half the world's annual demand. Stares says that's very promising -- except for that ocean-floor part.

Stares: That's like finding a deposit in the middle of nowhere, with no infrastructure and trying to get this thing out. You're going to be disrupting the ocean bed as well -- you can't just run out there and mine this stuff.

Rod Eggert at the Colorado School of Mines says companies have just recently begun mining underwater, and no one has attempted to mine at these depths.

Rod Eggert: Much of what's been announced both under the sea and on land represents potential, rather than any rare earth that's going to be produced any time soon.

Ok, I won't sell that Molycorp anytime soon.