David Lentz

Jack Lifton: The Technology Metals Age

Nice exposition of the ideas, but aside from penny stock CRMZF.PK and SQM, no specific investment vehicles were mentioned. Surely there are some ETFs that are heavy in miners of these materials?

And what's that about electric motors in cellphones? ("everything that’s got a small motor in it (a cell phone, Blackberry, etc.)" ???)

They might have some small magnets somewhere in them, but not the kind that contain the materials that this article is about. Motors in cellphones?

Also, there are several photovoltaic solar technologies, not all of them require the materials mentioned here. The point is that there will be alternatives to many of these predicted scarcities, so they may not be the opportunities they are presented to be.

I know of no alternative to the neodymium used in motors and generators, but that does not mean that there is not one, or that one will not be discovered. The point is that you have to be really on top of these materials scarcities issues, aware of alternative technologies and watching for new alternatives.

To reiterate -- a nice article describing a likely future, with few useful ways to invest in it.