I'm taking a quick break from posting on the TREM'10 conference and other goings-on in Washington this week, to comment on an interesting rare earths story that was passed along to me earlier today.

Regular readers of RareMetalBlog will be aware of Dacha Capital's recently-announced initiative to create a fund to be used to develop physical inventories of rare earths. It now appears that Dacha is not the only company looking to develop a financial product based on the rare earths.

According to a Dow Jones Newswire bulletin published today, Dolefin SA, an asset management firm based in Switzerland, is awaiting approval from the Swiss regulatory authorities to launch a new fund that will invest in 30 different companies in the rare earths space. The companies will include entities involved from the mining through processing stages. Dolefin's co-founder Stefan Steinemann indicates that the companies will be chosen by a consulting geologist, and that approval from the authorities is likely by the end of the month, although a definite launch date has not been given.

Dolefin has put together a standalone web site for the fund - www.ree-fund.com. Of interest is the fact that of the three partners other than Dolefin listed on the Web site as being involved in the project, one of them is Australia's Lynas Corporation, owners of the Mt. Weld rare earth mine project [which appears to be depicted in the banner graphic for the Web site].

An interesting development indeed.

-- Gareth Hatch