Speaker 1: Strategic metals. It's not a sort of academic or our
scientific term, but strategic metals are well, let's say the
US Geological Survey lists about forty five maybe fifty metals
which are strategic and critical to all nations, not just
North America, but to all nations economic prosperity and increasingly
military capabilities.
Speaker 2: You're listening to Carrie Letz's Financial Survival Network, where you
get valuable information you just can't find anywhere else to
thrive in today's trying times. You need the Financial Survival
Network now more than ever. Go to Financial Survivalnetwork dot
com and get your free newsletter and gift. Financial Survival
Network now more than ever.
Speaker 3: And welcome. You are listening to and watching the Financial
Survival Network. I'm your host Carrie Let's Interesting Guests today.
You know, when we talk about metals on this show,
we're usually talking about gold, silver, to a lesser degree, platinum.
You even mentioned rhodium once in a while. But the
person you're about to hear from, Lewis O'Connor, the website
Strategic Metal Metals invest dot com seen since twenty twenty Loot.
Welcome to the show. We've seen one hundred and sixteen
percent return not quite as good as gold and silver,
well little better than silver, a little less than gold.
What is a strategic metal? How do you own them?
Especially rare earths? You know, I don't really have storage
facilities here for lithium, and it's highly combustible in its
native form, And I wouldn't know what to do with
rare earths other than to make them into magnets. I
think there's nothing else to two. How do you play
this market?
Speaker 1: Okay, So I guess I'll give you the definition first,
because there probably are a few definitions strategic metals. It's
not a sort of academic or or scientific term, but
strategic metals are well, let's say the US Geological Survey
lists about forty five, maybe fifty metals which are strategic
and critical to the to the to all nations, not
just North America, but to all nations economic prosperity, and
increasingly military capabilities. So the metals we'll talk today about
are more of a subdivision of those. So the first
thing people should know about US carry is you rightly
pointed out, you know, the only end buyer or end
user for these raw materials or tesla or Apple or
US Department of Defense, and and you know, ordinary civilians
sort of have no way of storing them safely and
stuff like that. So the first thing people should know
about us is that are more business is we're an
industry supplier of strategic metals, so we're in business in
that on that side since nineteen ninety nine. We're twenty
five years in business, so eighty five percent of our
business activities were based in Europe. I'm in Ireland at
the moment, but where our main office is in Frankfurt
and Germany, and we have a logistics distribution platform there
where we buy metals, mostly from China at the moment,
and we resell them to four thousand different clients in
seventy four different countries, so manufacturers, industry buyers. We're also
a Tier one supplier to quite a few blue ship companies.
So that's our core business. And if that wasn't our
core business, we'd have no business doing what I'm about
to discuss with you today, which is we have a
side business or as you guys in America call a
side hustle, although it's a little bit bigger on that now.
Our side hustle is we invite private investors to participate
in the supply chain. And out of that forty five
or fifty, there's only about eight or ten that are
relevant as physical assets to private investors. And I'll talk
about any of them if you want today, and I'll
tell you what the characteristics are of what determines them
how do they get on the list to being relevant
as a physical asset. But yet, just to cover your point,
you said, look, there's no point in you or I
have a lithium you know, you know, in fact, I
don't even know if the US customs would allow you
imported because they all have you know, civilian and military applications.
But yeah, we are private investors by the raw materials
from US. They physically own them, but we recommend they
store them in our sister company, which is Mechlock, which
is a storage facility that has the largest inventory of
rare earts anywhere outside of China. And when our clients
have stored there, means they also have access to our
more than four thousand clients around the globe when they're
ready to liquidate.
Speaker 3: Got it all right? So uh, tell us what these
metals are and why they're worth so much.
Speaker 1: Okay, so gallium, germanium, indium, rhenium. Those are some of
the technology metals where ertz dysprosium, neodymium, per seodymium, neodymium.
They have very very unique qualities. Neodymium can hold one thousand,
three hundred times its own weight independently, So they're they're
they're there. They're conductors, their semiconductors. They can withstand very
very high temperatures, so they have multiple applications there asology.
You could say they're the upstream raw materials that ultimately
become trillions of dollars in downstream GDP, TESLA need them,
Apple need them, Department of Defense needs them, aviation space technology. Look,
we live and funny enough, actually, somebody recently said that
in Europe, and this was the President of the European Union,
said that where earths are fast becoming as important, maybe
even more important than oil and gas. So as we
pivot from oil to metals, rare earths are the new
frontline in geopolitical decisions. I mean proof of that is
you know President Trump mentioned critical rare earth minerals in Ukraine.
You know, Greenland is a big lump of ice, so
you know, the main interest ere resources as well, so
and that are very very important and they're they're now
being used as leverage in in you know, in in
national security interests.
Speaker 3: Right, okay, so I kind of get that, and it's
kind of like that think from avatar unobtainingum right yeah
yeah yeah, So so what kind of vehicle do you
have for investing in these things?
Speaker 1: So we invite private investors to own just like same
paradigm as as gold and silver, they can physically own
the raw materials. Our minimum investment is only ten dollars,
So we recommend people start small, you know, build a
position over time, learn about you know, the raw materials
on which ones are defense metals, which are energy transition,
which are aviation. And we'll help people get educated in
that regard. And we recommend like to be if I
can speak completely sort of frank and be sincere, which
you carry m like, we don't have ten different offers.
We don't also offer crypto or agriculture or a tem
or yeah. Yeah. Now the reason I'm saying that is
we only know one business and that's where an industry supplier.
So we you know, we we have a unique if
you will winning as well investment strategy. And what we
like to do is get people educated and tell them
what the strategy is. And once they have that strategy,
if they'd like to come on board, do But if
they're not aligned with the strategy, then don't. We don't
want day traders or we don't want people coming in
thinking you want to make you know, millions of dollars
and six months or eight months. We recommend a whole
of a minimum three years, five years, even longer, and
we recommend diversifying your purchase so you're you're not just
invested in defense, you're invested in all modern technology, aviation,
medical devices, you name it, all.
Speaker 3: Right, and yeah, so, but these metals really aren't that rare.
It's just that China has basically monopolized the entire right,
the entire market for them.
Speaker 1: Correct, Correct, China has an unrivaled dominance. And you are right,
despite the name, they're not always that rare some of them.
There're seventeen rare arts and there's only four that we
offer to private investors. So those are the one. I'll
tell you what the characteristics are. One is diversification. We
only offer the metals that actually have the most applications
in manufacturing today. Two, which ones are in the most
demand right at the moment. Obviously, artificial intelligence everybody's talking
about AI runs on data, but it relies on rare
earths for the magnets and the sensors, the cooling systems,
also the computer chips. I should say, so these are
we look at which ones you know, have had the
most applications and are in the most demand. We also
look which ones are the rarest, which ones are the
least in production. Halftium is a good example. There's only
seventy to ninety tons of half theium produced a year,
which you could sort of fit on the back of
a small truck. But here's where it gets interesting. These
rare materials, they do not occur naturally in the Earth's crust.
They're always a byproduct of another raw material. So half
theiums are byproductors are conium mining. For every fifty tons
or their conium, you get one ton of affnium. That's
why China sort of has this sort of dominance at
the moment. The last thing is is that particular reason,
which is whereas their heavy sort of localized production, where's
the supply concentration risk, and those are the four characteristics
that determine that.
Speaker 3: Okay, so small markets mostly dominated by China, but the
potential exists and it's being worked on now to actually
build additional capacity throughout the world. How long is that
going to take?
Speaker 1: Well, the average you know, obviously, I know your audience's US,
so I'll give you some US examples. The average time
from maiden discovery to being to production in America recently
for a minus twenty nine years. So even though you
know there's MP materials and minerals, I should say in
California they produce rare earths, but at the moment they
still have to sell most of their raw materials to
China for pro processing. So it's not the fact, as
you pointed out earlier, that they're there's for example, there's
five hundred thousand abandoned coal mines in the US that
have mind tailings. There's rare earths there, but the engineering expertise,
the human capital doesn't exist in Europe or the US.
The process these materials, they have to be extracted, they'll
be separated, and they have to be re metallized. It's
more of a metallurgical process than a mining process two
purity levels of you know, nineteen nine point ninety nine
nine percent. You know, that could be in the engine
of an F thirty five jet, or it's nuclear sub
or whatever whatever. So so China is about a generation
ahead of Europe and the rest of the world in
terms of the metallurgical process. And and i'd imagine you know,
you're right, there's the will is there, and the political
will is there are now and to weaner dependence off China,
but that's going to take time. It didn't happen overnight,
and it'll take a bit of time to remedy.
Speaker 3: Remedy right now. I've read that even though China is
attempting to control these markets, there's a huge smuggling market
where they smuggle the rare earth's out of China. Is
that correct?
Speaker 1: Yes, China has certainly teamed up the market a lot.
I mean, they've really consolidated since the nineteen eighties. But yeah,
there there's you know, there at one point there were
roague mines. Even that's that's sort of non existent. But yeah,
I mean they're a valuable commodity and anything can you know,
anything that would would exist in the normal sort of
trade and stuff exists with.
Speaker 3: This, Okay, all right, So you got to tell us
where we find you, Lou, how we connect with you
on the web.
Speaker 1: Sure, our website is www dot Strategic Metals Invest dot com.
And if somebody wants he made me direct and mention
your name, carry it's Louis l o U, I s
at Strategic Metalsinvest dot com and I'll be sure to answer.
Speaker 3: Them, all right, And you'll find a link in the
show notes for this interview that will take you to
Lose Sight. And while you're there, it's on Financial Survival
Network dot com. We just asked that you sign up
for a free newsletter. Take a look at the book
that we're offering the world. According to Martin Armstrong Conversations
with the Master Forecaster, Lou appreciate you coming on and
it's going to be interesting to watch see how this
whole thing unfolds. And we will talk to you again soon.
Speaker 1: Thanks Gerry, thanks for listening to Carrie.
Speaker 2: Let's this Financial Survival Network your solution to today's trying times.
For the latest, go to Financial Survivalnetwork dot com. Financial
Survival Network now more than ever