http://news.silverseek.com/SilverSeek/1297276845.php

“In most industrial applications, there is a small, but necessary amount of silver and rare earths used which is resistant to substitution. The chemical properties of silver and rare earth elements are usually unique in the specialized industrial applications which mandate their use. Generally, the consumption of silver and rare earth elements is price-inelastic, meaning sharply increasing prices of each do little to discourage consumption, due to the lack of substitutes. As was seen recently in the rare earth elements, the industrial users panicked when the supply was curtailed. This will also happen in silver, as I have long predicted.

Where do I get off with the statement that silver is the rarest earth element of them all? This point is the easiest of all to make and should prompt you to rush out to buy silver immediately. What separates silver from the REE’s is the one stark factor which is unique to only silver. You can actually buy and hold silver in its purest elemental form, unlike other rare earth elements. Try calling some dealer to invest in pure yttrium, or promethium or gadolinium. And if by some miracle you can find someone to buy from, try to imagine how you could possibly sell or determine a fair price?”

The  chart singles out the rare earth metals in red (the lanthanides, plus scandium and yttrium) from all other metals and rare metals by their 2009 production rate. It also identifies the 2010 rare metals as those beginning with, and including, silver, as well as all of those produced at a rate less than that of silver in 2009. Lifton

Just for Nick (Sarah’s dad)…. There seems to be just one ASX listed player with a possibly commercial amount of Tellurium… It is at Mt Wilgar next to CDU’s giant Rocklands Cu deposit. The Mt Wilgar deposit also has Selenium. Both Tellurium and Selenium are used for advanced solar panels.

With an abundance in the Earth’s crust comparable to that of platinum, tellurium is one of the rarest stable solid elements in the Earth’s crust. Its abundance is about 1 µg/kg.^[10] In comparison, even the rarest of the lanthanides have crustal abundances of 500 µg/kg